1. What is the key to your team progressing to the final?
2. What have you made of your opponents this season?
3. Prediction for the other semifinal?
HARBOUR v TAIERI
Watson Park
Harbour coach Peter McIntyre:
1. Just staying together as a team, really. Making sure we have good clarity going into this week and keep working on what needs to be improved. We’re not going to try to pump this up - we just want to stay relaxed.
2. Taieri are a good side. Very disciplined and strong on defence, and they’ve got attacking threats as well. We’ve had two tight games against them this season, and we’re expecting it to go down to the line.
3. Southern are a very experienced side, and potentially Kaik are youthful. I think it might come down to conditions, and I’d have to give Southern the tick of approval. Harry Taylor’s a good game driver, and they’ve got good inside backs and good outside backs.
Taieri coach Phil Young:
1. I look back to where we were last year, and we’ve built on that in regards to confidence. We’ve just taken every game on its merits. We’re going into the semifinal with a lot of excitement, really. We’ve got an opportunity, and for a lot of our players, it’s the first time they’ve been in this arena.
2. Harbour are a well-balanced side. They’ve got key players in key positions who orchestrate the flow of their game. They’ve got powerful men up front and some wheels in the backs, Very good side.
3. It might depend on the weather. Kaikorai have got a very good loose forward trio, and a good kicking five-eighth who creates a bit of pressure and gains territory. They play quite an expansive game, so on a dry day, I’d pick Kaik. If it’s wet, Southern like to play their game up front. It should be a humdinger.
SOUTHERN V KAIKORAI
Bathgate Park
Southern coach Dion Lobb:
1. Hopefully remaining injury-free. We got a couple of injuries out of the weekend’s game and we’ll see if those boys get through. At the start of the year, we had our backs out, and now our forwards are starting to go down. If we can keep everyone on the park, I think we’ll be fine. Just fix up a few minor things and we’re looking OK.
2. Kaikorai are a quality side. They play quite a different style to most of the other sides in the comp. They like to go edge to edge quite a lot, and play quite an expansive game. We tipped them up once and they got us once, so it should be a good match-up.
3. If Taieri have Fischli and Millar, it will make things tight. But otherwise I think Harbour’s size down at Watson Park might make it just a bit too tough for Taieri. Harbour, just.
Kaikorai coach Andy Hunter:
1. Just maintaining some of the confidence we’ve built over the last few weeks. And continuing to develop our game. We’re far from where we’d like to be, but results have gone well. We just need to prepare as well as we can and stay fit and healthy.
2. Southern are a pretty complete team. Big ball-carrying up front, they’re pretty physical, and they’ve got some game-breakers in midfield and wider. We give them a lot of respect, for sure. We’ve had a couple of really good games against them and there was very little in both.
3. We’ve played both Harbour and Taieri in the last three weeks, and they were both really challenging games. They’re quite different teams. Nearly too close to call. Harbour have the physical presence but Taieri are just difficult to beat. They’re so organised and determined. I think Taieri, just.
