Otago Spirit coach Duncan McEwan will be watching the line breaks with interest when his side takes on Hawkes Bay today.
Both sides come into today's game after losses in the opening round of the women's NPC. Otago went down 39-5 to Waikato, and Hawkes Bay suffered at the hands of Auckland, to the tune of 55-7.
McEwan was pleased with large parts of Otago's game last week, but the focus at training this week was on the turnovers which plagued Otago's attack in the opening round.
''We made 15 to 20 line breaks in that game, but we just weren't able to convert the last phases into points and that was because we were turning ball over,'' McEwan said.
''We would make a line break, the secondary defence wave would halt us and then we would turn the ball over, rather than protect it.''
The Spirit will continue to play the game at speed, and iron out the kinks along the way. McEwan said the side was only in the third week of training for its specific structure and fine-tuning the breakdown technique.
''If you're more unstructured in the way you play, it's recognising when you're going to go in to those unstructured contact or breakdown situations and having those support players recognise that and get to that breakdown quickly.''
Otago has plenty of firepower out wide - helped this week by the return of outside backs Hollie Fraser and Rian Sanerive - and McEwan saw enough last week against Waikato to persevere with spinning the ball wide.
''Were making a lot of ground through those channels, so it's continuing that development then adding the next wave.''
McEwan watched a replay of Hawkes Bay's opening game and was impressed with what he saw.
'' Auckland seemed to pounce and score a lot on [Hawkes Bay's] mistakes and they didn't seem to break them down a whole lot from structured play,'' he said.`They've got a decent pack, they tend to run the fringes pretty hard and I think they were reasonably competitive, considering how good that Auckland team is.''
The game has been moved to University Oval 2 with a new kick-off time of noon, in order for Hawkes Bay to travel down and back to Napier in one day.
Women's NPC
Otago Spirit v Hawkes Bay Tuis, University Oval 2, today, noon.
Otago Spirit: Sheree Hume, Tina Moata'ane, Greer Muir, Michaela Baker, Hollie Fraser, Olivia Waldron, Sam Wong, Angie Sisifa (c), Madeleine Finch, Julia Gorinski, Kate Smith, Epe Elisara, Gemma Tuhega, Tegan Hollows, Eilis Doyle. Reserves: Kelly Whitten, Marilie Mostert, Zoe Whatarau, Mary Jane, Kivalu, Megan Manson, Georgina McCullough, Rian Sanerive.
Hawkes Bay Tuis: Talon Robinson, Kirsty Grace-Thomas, Abbie Collier, Jamiee Edwards, Felicity Powdrell, Amy Williams, Gemma Woods, Te Aroha Hunt, Laurae Blake (c), Naomi Hunt, Turuhira McIlroy, Rebekah Hurae, Sharlena Maui, Forne Burkin, Natalie Cotton. Reserves: Harmony Lone, Iaesha Puata, Terangi Maeva, Janey Sene, Hope Hakopa, Hailey Baker, Te Ahurei Kingi/Kate Thomson.
