Lions can expect bruising battle against Wellington, says Tito

TARANAKI captain Paul Tito has warned the Lions to expect another bruising battle from his Super 12 buddies in the Wellington team next Wednesday.

The Hurricanes lock took the Taranaki fight to the tourists in New Plymouth last night, leaving coaches Ian McGeechan, Gareth Jenkins and Mike Ford to mull over a ferocious forwards battle. Now Tito expects 2004 NPC finalists Wellington to do the same when the Lions reach the New Zealand capital in a week’s time.

While Wellington, also known as the Lions, will not be at full strength with All Blacks such as Tana Umaga, Ma’a Nonu, Jerry Collins and Conrad Smith on Test duty against Fiji this weekend, there is still plenty of firepower at their disposal with another clutch of Tito’s Hurricanes team-mates ready to be unleashed.

“I think Wellington will go well,” Tito said. “It sounds like they want to put a pretty strong team out there.

“The forward battle was real critical for us and I thought our boys did pretty well. It was very physical. The breakdowns were the same, no one was giving an inch and everyone was piling into it. There were some crucial turnovers, though, and they scored two brilliant tries from them and that made the difference.

“But we all know that Wellington have got a pretty good team and I’m sure they’ll give it heaps against the Lions.”

The lock, who had played for New Zealand Maori in Fiji last Friday, went toe to toe early on in the first half with opposite number Danny Grewcock but the Taranaki skipper laughed the incident off. “I thought it was fairly lighthearted stuff,” Tito said. “He got a few (punches) in, I didn’t, really.”

Taranaki coach, former All Black full-back Kieran Crowley, pointed to hooker Andrew Hore’s 56th minute sin-binning for failing to roll away at ruck time as the crucial moment of the match.

“Hore’s yellow card was probably the major turning point,” Crowley said. “The Lions pretty much suffocated us from then.”