Free thinking puts Bay u19s on path to prominence

Lalomilo Lalomilo is one of the high-achieving Bay of Plenty under 19 team tipped for big things. Photo: Chris James

Bay of Plenty under 19s coach Mike Rogers credits the freedom he's encouraging his team to play with – fully supported by the union hierarchy - for the astonishing results they're achieving.

They began the Jock Hobbs Memorial tournament on Sunday thrashing Hawke's Bay 90-0, which followed 94-0 and 36-17 wins over Taranaki and Waikato in the seeding rounds.

A situation Mike didn't exactly see coming, despite his confidence in his team's ability.

'Definitely not. It's a bit of a funny one eh? Sometimes everything clicks and the game gets away on the other team so it definitely wasn't our expectation.

'We certainly had high hopes we could make the top four after we just missed out last year. But I definitely wasn't thinking we were going to be winning by those sorts of scores.”

This afternoon they have a semifinal encounter with North Harbour, a very different team to themselves, Mike says, but they're not going to let that change the way they play.

'We just have a bit of a mentality that we want to play more than everybody else. The boys have generally got pretty good skill sets so our philosophy's just to let them play.

'At the end of the day where we're currently at we don't really want to change too much.

'If somebody's good enough to beat us they'll beat us but they'll have to put us under a fair bit of pressure, or beat us by playing the same kind of way, so I guess it's just a little bit of freedom for the boys just to go out there and do what they do.

'Our big thing for them is just playing without fear and going out there and expressing themselves. I know it's easy to say but we actually believe that and if somebody beats us they beat us – it's not going to be the end of the world - but they'll have a heap of fun in the process.

'The boys have really bought into that and are out there enjoying themselves and scoring some great tries. They're under no illusions that at some time it's going to be a bit more difficult but it doesn't really change too much in terms of our approach. I think these boys are best when they're not too worried about things.”

Mike agrees 14 tries in Sunday's destruction of Hawke's Bay – the majority scored by the backs – suggests the whole team is functioning pretty well.

'Yeah, we're winning our share of ball so the backs have got a pretty decent platform to play off. Our forwards are pretty skilled – we're not the biggest forward pack going around by any stretch of the imagination so let's try and play faster than the opposition and everybody use their skills.

'We're not really interested in getting into an arm wrestle or taking teams on up front – we'll just play.”

The team's success this year has a lot to do with the academy system the Bay union has put in place in recent years, and newfound ability to attract top schoolboy talent to the region, Mike says.

'Fifty percent of our players have come out of our local schools like Rotorua Boys', Tauranga Boys', and a few other schools, and then the rest is made up of guys that we've targeted to come in to the Bay of Plenty academy. They're players that with a couple of year's development are potentially going to be Mitre 10 Cup players. That's of the lay of the land these days.

'Having a good under 19 team is a reflection of a good academy programme, and a good academy programme will result in us bringing players through to Mitre 10 Cup pretty quickly. Four of our players from last year have been featuring for the Steamers this year so that's what it's all about.”

Mike says North Harbour will test his team in a way they haven't faced before now, but the philosophy they're instilling in their players won't change.

'Yeah they're big and physical so they're quite a contrast to the teams that we've played so far.

'They're quite a lot different to how we approach the game so it'll be a bit of a clash of styles which is always fascinating. They've got a different team profile to what we've got so they play to their strengths really well. They're going well, they've beaten some good teams over the last couple of weeks.

In contrast to the baby Steamers' quarterfinal triumph over Hawkes Bay North Harbour battled to a 28-25 win over Tasman, and needed a last minute penalty to make the semi. But Mike says it'll be the team that does their stuff best reaching Saturday's final.

'They've got a different approach that's more than likely going to cause us some headaches at some point so that's good, the boys have trained well so we'll see how we go.”

Today's Jock Hobbs Memorial tournament semifinal at Taupo's Owen Delany Park kicks off at 2:15.

Regardless of today's result Bay fans will be able to watch the team in action live on Sky Sport on Saturday. The third place playoff is at 1:40, with the Graham Mourie Cup final following at 5pm.

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