Although the blue and golds showed some signs of rust — handling errors stymieing their attack throughout the game — their effort to hold out Southland, who had its chance to win the match in the final minutes, pleased coach Cory Brown.
"There were some really good performances out there and I am pleased in general," he said.
"I thought our defensive effort was really good."
The way the Otago side linked together to hold out several attacks on its line defied the short time the squad had been together.
"These guys have only been together for the week — and that’s four days," Brown said.
It was the emerging backline talent that shone the most in Otago’s win, with the coach labelling Jona Nareki and Josh Timu two of the side’s best.
"I thought young Jona Nareki on the wing had a really good game. He executed and kicked really well off his left foot and cleaned up a lot."
Timu played with poise on attack, but it was his defensive effort that most impressed Brown.
"He was excellent.
"He cleaned up a lot of 50-50s and he defended extremely well — would have been close to topping the tackle count. I don’t think he missed one either."
Timu’s fellow midfielder, Leeroy van Dam, impressed in his trial, proving a big handful on attack, but, like Timu, he was an even bigger threat to the Southlanders on defence.
"Leeroy defended extremely well, with some good low tackles," Brown said.
Van Dam’s performance was timely. The Otago union only officially announced the former Manawatu representative’s signing yesterday.
Also in the emerging talent department was five-eighth Josh Ioane. The No 10 was clinical with the ball in hand and kicked a perfect three from three attempts with the boot.
The Otago forwards laid a solid platform for their backs, with scrum and line-out execution close to perfect.
"The line-out was really successful today, so that was a bonus."
Lock Tom Rowe was impressive in taking the majority of that ball from an accurate Sekonaia Pole.
With Liam Coltman ruled out for the season, Pole is clearly going to be a key piece in the Otago forward puzzle this year.
The hooker was not only accurate at line-out time, but a stand-out among the forwards across the field.
What stopped the Otago side piling on more points was its consistent rate of handling errors, something Brown has identified as a must-improve area.
"That handling under pressure, it is just at another level when you have finished playing club [rugby] and I thought that was what just caught us out a little bit."
- Jonny Turner
Mitre 10 Cup
Warm-up
Otago 17
Jonah Aoina, Sekonaia Pole tries; Josh Ioane pen, 2 con
Southland 14
Neria Fomai, Tim Boys triesScott Eade con, Greg Dyer conHalftime: 10-7