Aaron Mauger proud as Moana Pasifika showed heart to get into ...

It ended up being the ninth loss of the season for Moana Pasifika at Mt Smart Stadium on Saturday night, but Aaron Mauger was proud of how his team fought back to come close to getting that elusive win.

They lost 43-33 to the Rebels to remain rooted to the bottom of the Super Rugby Pasifika table, but given that they were down 38-12 after almost an hour, it was a spirited effort from his team over the last 20 minutes.

When Fine Isi scored his second try in the final minute the gap was down to five points and Moana Pasifika were able to have one last attack.

However, the ball was turned over and Monty Ioane scored for the Rebels to secure the win.

“We asked for a lot of heart through the week, we asked for our defence and the actions of our defence to show how much we cared and I thought that was really evident tonight,” Mauger told Stuff afterwards.

“I think we made 70 tackles in the first 15 minutes of the game and that’s probably half the tackles we make over a whole game.

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The Rebels’ James Tuttle looks to quickly move the ball against Moana Pasifika.

“Credit to the Rebels, they put us under pressure, but ultimately you’ve got to secure your own set piece ball to win games.

“We showed we were good enough when we hold the ball and build pressure, but a bit of set piece ball would have allowed us to do that a bit more.”

A problem for Moana Pasifika over much of this season was how they’ve faded away over the last 20 minutes of games and Mauger had previously admitted fitness levels weren’t where they needed to be.

But like their game against the Reds before the bye, Moana Pasifika were the strongest team over the last quarter.

“I thought the bench was outstanding,” Mauger said.

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When Moana Pasifika went on their try scoring run late in the game against the Rebels, it looked like they could pick up their first win of the season. However, they came up just short.

“Jonathan Taumateine came on, it was his first game all year and you wouldn’t have known, it was really sharp.

“Lincoln McClutchie had impact, Fine isi, great impact, all of them came on and gave us what we needed.“It was a whole team effort to stay in the fight and win the game from the last kickoff. I’m really proud of that.

“We’ve got some areas to tidy up, secure some more set piece ball, we can play some attacking footy, secure more points and hopefully we’ll get that win in the next couple of weeks.”

While it was pleasing for Moana Pasifika fans to see their team get into the battle, they had dug themselves into to big a hole over the first half.

They made silly errors on attack and defence and discipline was poor, with Miracle Faiilagi, Isi Tu’ungafasi and Ezekiel Lindenmuth all shown yellow cards.

“That was a result of pressure the Rebels put is under,” Mauger said.

“We’ve got to be better there, we can’t afford to be playing the game with 14 men.

“So small margins, we’ve got to keep closing the gap on those things, but we’ll keep working hard, have another good week and look forward to playing the Blues.”

There is now an 11-point gap between Moana Pasifika and the 11th placed Fijian Drua on the ladder and with five games to go, it’s looking increasingly likely that Mauger’s team will again pick up the wooden spoon. However, he remains confident they can win games.

“It’s certainly not where we want to be and it’s the same message around there being gaps in our game that we’ve got to be real about,” Mauger said.

“Tonight it was the lineout not quite firing and if we get that part right we’re away. It’s pulling all of those things together.

“I’m certain we’ll win a game and we’ve got an opportunity to attack the Blues and do that at Eden Park.

“It won’t be easy, because they’re a quality side.”