Dolphin can swim with the big boys, says T’Pau
Player-coach of Old Crescent, the team pipped by Dolphin for promotion and beaten again by the Cork side in last Saturday’s Division Two final.
During his six years in Ireland, the 38-times capped Tongan international has played in every division of the AIL, including the old fourth division.
His first two years were spent with Richmond when they won promotion from fourth to third division; his last two years have been with Old Crescent in the second division. Between those periods however, and at the ripe old age of 24, T’Pau was appointed player-coach of first division side Young Munster, where he took them to the last-four playoffs.
Experienced then in every aspect of the AIL, twice charged with plotting the downfall of Dolphin in recent months, T’Pau’s take on their chances of survival at the top table is: “They will need to strengthen a few positions, obviously, but they’ve already got a good solid panel and should do well. They can vary their game plan very well, as we learned to our cost.
“When we played them in the regular season (a 16-16 draw), they took it to us out wide, but last Saturday they took it up the middle which we weren’t expecting (Dolphin won 29-19).
“They have lots of variation in their game plan and are well-equipped to deal with the first division. One area they might look at is their front row, in the scrummaging department. We targeted that area very successfully on Saturday.
“Their lineout is very good though, and that’s important in the modern game where you have twice as many lineouts as scrums.”
There isn’t a lot of difference in physical terms, T’Pau reckons, between second and first division rugby. Dolphin’s challenge will be to adapt to the faster pace, mentally and physically.
“If anything, the second division is more physical than the first, but the big difference is the pace of the game at the top, much quicker, as you’d expect.
“Then there’s the mental aspect, you have to be much more focused. There is a much smaller margin for error. Make a mistake in the second division and you might get away with it. Make the same mistake in the first, and you’ll be punished.”
Those mental mistakes was the reason he felt his own club didn’t win promotion.
“This is the second successive season we’ve come close. We definitely had the team to do the business this year. We improved our total points position, scored a lot more tries, but failed in that crucial area, the top six inches.
“Mental preparation is a highly individual thing. We can train the guys, get them fit and ready week in week out, but it’s up to them to have that mental toughness. We’ve had a reasonably successful season, but next year we have to be that bit more consistent, every week.”
Of even more concern to the New Zealand-born Sports Science graduate however, is the way he sees the whole AIL set-up developing. It reminds him of something he’s seen before.
“Irish rugby would want to be careful it doesn’t make the same mistake as New Zealand. There are similarities between the European Cup now and the Super 12 when it first started. New Zealand rugby was very happy, initially, with the quality of player coming through from Super 12, focused much of their attention on that, poured a lot of money into it and club rugby started to suffer.
“Three or four years down the track, they weren’t getting the same quality of player coming through at Super 12 level because of the neglect of the club scene.
“The same thing is happening here, it’s almost identical. Irish rugby is on a high at national and provincial level, and it’s great to ride that high, to be on top of thing. But you’ve got to put measures in place to make sure Irish rugby stays on that high, otherwise you could be left in the situation that in two or three years time, you’re left wondering where it all went wrong.
“That means taking care of the club rugby scene. Look after the grassroots, and you’re taking care of the future. They don’t have to reinvent the wheel, all they need do is look at countries like New Zealand, see what they’ve done, the mistakes they’ve made, and learn from that.”