March 29, 2025 • 10 mins
Moana Pasifika aren't going to rest on their laurels after a shock first-ever win over the Crusaders in Super Rugby.
Coach Tana Umaga wants more consistency for his team - but only after they enjoy one of the highlights of his fabled playing and coaching career.
Umaga joined Piney to recap the latest win.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Weekend Sport podcast with Jason Vine
from newstalk ZEDB.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Mowana Pacifica have claimed the biggest upset of the Super
Rugby season so far. Mowana magnificence a miraculate march for
Tano Mugger's been for the first time they beat the Crusaders,
a famous forty five twenty nine win over the Crusaders
(00:34):
in christ Church. Inspirational captain Ardie Savia led the way,
scoring the first two Mowana tries as they claimed their
second win of the campaign. It was also the second
most points the Crusaders have ever conceded in christ Church,
surpassed only by the forty nine the Blues put on
them in Super Rugby's very first season back in nineteen
(00:57):
ninety six. Moana Pacifica coach Tana Umanga is with us
Tana thanks for taking the time in general terms. First
of all, how special a win is this for you
and for your team?
Speaker 3 (01:10):
Oh? Very special. I suppose anyone's a special win. But
when you come down here and you know to christ
Church and you play against the team that's obviously formidable
at home and you know that they're one of the
form teams. Yeah, you know, it is very special to
(01:30):
do that, so you know, very proud of the group
and also you know the ones that came down here,
but also the ones at home, you know that help
us prepare for You know, what was our best performance
of the year?
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Was this the eighty minute performance you've been looking for
for sure?
Speaker 3 (01:48):
You know, you know we've been good at patches as
we've seen, and uh, you know it was probably you know,
we don't want to get too far in front of
ourselves here, Jason, but you know, there's obviously still things
to work, but no, you know this is probably, you
probably our best performance since I've been here, and we
(02:12):
know we've we've got more on us and we know
we have to have more on us because we can't
just rely on this one game. But you know, we
enjoyed our our performance and our win last night and
now we're already you know, as you do in this competition,
you can't can't keep thinking about what's in the past.
You've got to move forward and you know we need
to do that now.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
How hard tin of have you worked at blending the
traditional style of Pacifica rugby, which we all love to
watch with a work right and a structure that's needed
to consistently win matches.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
Well probably since we've got here, and I'm sure, yeah,
look at and that's the thing. You know, we know
we can play the game, we know we're exciting to watch,
and traditionally that's in us, but we also know with
the coach group and the playing group and the leadership
(03:08):
that we have, that we can't just rely on that
to win games. And we want to be more than
just a team that everyone loves watching and a highlight
real team. We want to be a team that is
consistent and can put out performances that people are proud of,
not losing sight of who we are and what we
can do. And we know we've got that, but we
(03:30):
want to show exactly what you talked about around our
work creating those effort areas and also you know, the
detail around what good teams do to win games, and
I think you know you saw a bit of that
last night, and it's great to hear people talk around
our work cred not just the flair that we naturally
bring to games.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
And so in that way, then will last night become
something of a blueprint for you? Will it be something
you can you know, you can reference with your team
as you look for more performances.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Like this, exactly exactly, it's you know, we've had that
blueprint for a while, as you know, putting that plan
in place, adhering to the plan, trusting the plan, and
you know, just you know, for us, it's combining the
(04:21):
emotion we have and all that energy that we want
to do well and understanding that you know, we do
this for a bigger purpose than just ourselves as a group.
But we've got to channel that energy somewhere and channel
channel it in a way that you know, we're all
doing it, all doing it for the same reason. And
(04:44):
you know, as we see were singing office the same
hymn sheet, because we know when we do that, when
we channel that energy in the right places at the
right times and as a collective, then you know, we
know we can get more more results like we did
last night.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
Early in the second half, you were thirty one ten
ahead and then a couple of tries to the Crusaders
scott them more than nine. What would the conversation you
were having when they got back to within nine points
was still want about twenty five minutes to go.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
Oh, those are the big moments for us. There was
a huge moment for us, and it took me to
skip Ardi. You know, he said, those are the moments
that that you know, the boys stood up again. It's
around uniting us around what we were going to go
to next, and that that's something that we've worked on
from especially from the last game. Is that coming together
(05:35):
in those moments, you know, and understanding that we know
what to do, you know, have faith, a trust the
plan and you know, just go back to doing what
we were doing and not not lose faith in that.
And I think that was probably a turning point for
us in a bit and a big part of our growth,
(05:55):
especially from last week. It was you know, swinging that
momentum because it was turned against us when we had
it all and obviously we know what it feels like
when we let that momentum keep going to it and
giving that to the opposition teams. But again, you know,
our leaders stepped up. The players understood and we've been
ever before, but now we want to change this. And
(06:18):
you know, full credit to them, they.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Did a lot of players caught the eye last night.
I just want to ask you about Patrick Pellegrini. What
have you seen in him? How proud have you been
of his growth and his I get you he works,
I'm sure closely with Jackson Garden bashup inside your playing group.
But what have you made of of Patrick Pellegrini's introduction
to Super rugby.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
Obviously he's you know, he's really taken to it. He's
done everything that was after him from the preseason to now.
And iously, you know we've seen him play internationals and
you know, from a guy that started in Sydney, took
a punt and you know, signed with Division three in
England and ended up playing Division two and then wanting
(07:02):
to come back and play and always drink about playing
Super rugby and from what we saw and obviously him
playing for Dongner infitted into what we were about. And
then he just worked. And you talk about work, but
he worked hard in the in the off season and
our preseason block. You know, he had a few things
(07:22):
to work on, and you know, fortunately with the backstretches
we have and Stephen Jones and Lorust Mupple, sure there's
a lot of mp saw that you know, they just
kept building his game and you can see, you know,
when someone he has the flair. You know, I think
that's the pulm side that comes out on me. He
loves he loves that side of the game, and you know,
(07:44):
it was the other part in terms of managing a game.
And he's learned a lot from Jackson as well. And
now you've just see that and again, you know, for
someone who's coming to Super Rugby for the first time,
you know, he's he's taking some learnings and he's he's
worked hard on his craft and now we're you know,
(08:06):
for him, it's the consistency. It's for him, it's you know,
obviously everyone's talking about him now and it's a lot
of our guys, you know, they're talking about them now.
Now it's you know, from talking taking on negative and
being able to block dad and it's also us just
learning from it. You know, it's the same with all
the positivity. For us, we can take confidence from it,
but you're still just going to go back and do
(08:27):
the job that that we need to perform for our team.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Just to finish it. It almost seems silly to ask
you to find more ways to describe Ardie Savia. I
don't know that there are too many more words couple
of tries to start you off last night. Can you
articulate what he brings to your team in any new way?
Speaker 4 (08:44):
Tather Oh, I was asked the same question yesterday and
I just said, Look, it's everything that everyone says, but
I get to see it every day, just like our players.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
You know, even last night after the game. It's keeping
everyone's feet on the ground. You know, it's great, enjoy it.
You know, we love what we do and obviously give
that result, but you know we want more, you know,
we want their feeling. We've got to want more. We've
got to know that this is not it and that's
the challenge. And you know, just him being him, you know,
(09:22):
I think just gives everyone confidence and lifts everyone to realize, actually,
Je's this is the scuy you know, who's sacrificed it
to be here, and they know they have to lift
their levels and then they realize when they lift those levels,
they well, jeez, I can play at this level. You know,
(09:42):
I can play it at a level that I mean,
we can compete with the best, and so that just
builds confidence. And that's the biggest thing that I think
that he's brought to us. He's a confidence builder. You know,
he's a leader both in his actions and his words,
and I think he's someone that, you know, we're very
fortunate to have and unfortunate that he he aligned us,
(10:04):
hisself with with us. So yeah, I think probably the
word is we're disgrateful, you know, for what he brings
and what he does for us and making sure the
plans would say the same.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Congrats Tana, terrific performance, mate, Thanks for the chat this afternoon.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
Thank you, Jase, appreciate it, No, appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
Thank you, Tana. Tana among that Mawana Pacific a coach
off the back of a significant night in their history
forty five twenty nine winners over the Crusaders in christ
Church last night.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
For more from Weekend Sport with Jason Fine, listen live
to News Talks d B weekends from midday or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio
You're listening to the Weekend Sport podcast with Jason Vine
from newstalk ZEDB.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Mowana Pacifica have claimed the biggest upset of the Super
Rugby season so far. Mowana magnificence a miraculate march for
Tano Mugger's been for the first time they beat the Crusaders,
a famous forty five twenty nine win over the Crusaders
(00:34):
in christ Church. Inspirational captain Ardie Savia led the way,
scoring the first two Mowana tries as they claimed their
second win of the campaign. It was also the second
most points the Crusaders have ever conceded in christ Church,
surpassed only by the forty nine the Blues put on
them in Super Rugby's very first season back in nineteen
(00:57):
ninety six. Moana Pacifica coach Tana Umanga is with us
Tana thanks for taking the time in general terms. First
of all, how special a win is this for you
and for your team?
Speaker 3 (01:10):
Oh? Very special. I suppose anyone's a special win. But
when you come down here and you know to christ
Church and you play against the team that's obviously formidable
at home and you know that they're one of the
form teams. Yeah, you know, it is very special to
(01:30):
do that, so you know, very proud of the group
and also you know the ones that came down here,
but also the ones at home, you know that help
us prepare for You know, what was our best performance
of the year?
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Was this the eighty minute performance you've been looking for
for sure?
Speaker 3 (01:48):
You know, you know we've been good at patches as
we've seen, and uh, you know it was probably you know,
we don't want to get too far in front of
ourselves here, Jason, but you know, there's obviously still things
to work, but no, you know this is probably, you
probably our best performance since I've been here, and we
(02:12):
know we've we've got more on us and we know
we have to have more on us because we can't
just rely on this one game. But you know, we
enjoyed our our performance and our win last night and
now we're already you know, as you do in this competition,
you can't can't keep thinking about what's in the past.
You've got to move forward and you know we need
to do that now.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
How hard tin of have you worked at blending the
traditional style of Pacifica rugby, which we all love to
watch with a work right and a structure that's needed
to consistently win matches.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
Well probably since we've got here, and I'm sure, yeah,
look at and that's the thing. You know, we know
we can play the game, we know we're exciting to watch,
and traditionally that's in us, but we also know with
the coach group and the playing group and the leadership
(03:08):
that we have, that we can't just rely on that
to win games. And we want to be more than
just a team that everyone loves watching and a highlight
real team. We want to be a team that is
consistent and can put out performances that people are proud of,
not losing sight of who we are and what we
can do. And we know we've got that, but we
(03:30):
want to show exactly what you talked about around our
work creating those effort areas and also you know, the
detail around what good teams do to win games, and
I think you know you saw a bit of that
last night, and it's great to hear people talk around
our work cred not just the flair that we naturally
bring to games.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
And so in that way, then will last night become
something of a blueprint for you? Will it be something
you can you know, you can reference with your team
as you look for more performances.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Like this, exactly exactly, it's you know, we've had that
blueprint for a while, as you know, putting that plan
in place, adhering to the plan, trusting the plan, and
you know, just you know, for us, it's combining the
(04:21):
emotion we have and all that energy that we want
to do well and understanding that you know, we do
this for a bigger purpose than just ourselves as a group.
But we've got to channel that energy somewhere and channel
channel it in a way that you know, we're all
doing it, all doing it for the same reason. And
(04:44):
you know, as we see were singing office the same
hymn sheet, because we know when we do that, when
we channel that energy in the right places at the
right times and as a collective, then you know, we
know we can get more more results like we did
last night.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
Early in the second half, you were thirty one ten
ahead and then a couple of tries to the Crusaders
scott them more than nine. What would the conversation you
were having when they got back to within nine points
was still want about twenty five minutes to go.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
Oh, those are the big moments for us. There was
a huge moment for us, and it took me to
skip Ardi. You know, he said, those are the moments
that that you know, the boys stood up again. It's
around uniting us around what we were going to go
to next, and that that's something that we've worked on
from especially from the last game. Is that coming together
(05:35):
in those moments, you know, and understanding that we know
what to do, you know, have faith, a trust the
plan and you know, just go back to doing what
we were doing and not not lose faith in that.
And I think that was probably a turning point for
us in a bit and a big part of our growth,
(05:55):
especially from last week. It was you know, swinging that
momentum because it was turned against us when we had
it all and obviously we know what it feels like
when we let that momentum keep going to it and
giving that to the opposition teams. But again, you know,
our leaders stepped up. The players understood and we've been
ever before, but now we want to change this. And
(06:18):
you know, full credit to them, they.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Did a lot of players caught the eye last night.
I just want to ask you about Patrick Pellegrini. What
have you seen in him? How proud have you been
of his growth and his I get you he works,
I'm sure closely with Jackson Garden bashup inside your playing group.
But what have you made of of Patrick Pellegrini's introduction
to Super rugby.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
Obviously he's you know, he's really taken to it. He's
done everything that was after him from the preseason to now.
And iously, you know we've seen him play internationals and
you know, from a guy that started in Sydney, took
a punt and you know, signed with Division three in
England and ended up playing Division two and then wanting
(07:02):
to come back and play and always drink about playing
Super rugby and from what we saw and obviously him
playing for Dongner infitted into what we were about. And
then he just worked. And you talk about work, but
he worked hard in the in the off season and
our preseason block. You know, he had a few things
(07:22):
to work on, and you know, fortunately with the backstretches
we have and Stephen Jones and Lorust Mupple, sure there's
a lot of mp saw that you know, they just
kept building his game and you can see, you know,
when someone he has the flair. You know, I think
that's the pulm side that comes out on me. He
loves he loves that side of the game, and you know,
(07:44):
it was the other part in terms of managing a game.
And he's learned a lot from Jackson as well. And
now you've just see that and again, you know, for
someone who's coming to Super Rugby for the first time,
you know, he's he's taking some learnings and he's he's
worked hard on his craft and now we're you know,
(08:06):
for him, it's the consistency. It's for him, it's you know,
obviously everyone's talking about him now and it's a lot
of our guys, you know, they're talking about them now.
Now it's you know, from talking taking on negative and
being able to block dad and it's also us just
learning from it. You know, it's the same with all
the positivity. For us, we can take confidence from it,
but you're still just going to go back and do
(08:27):
the job that that we need to perform for our team.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
Just to finish it. It almost seems silly to ask
you to find more ways to describe Ardie Savia. I
don't know that there are too many more words couple
of tries to start you off last night. Can you
articulate what he brings to your team in any new way?
Speaker 4 (08:44):
Tather Oh, I was asked the same question yesterday and
I just said, Look, it's everything that everyone says, but
I get to see it every day, just like our players.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
You know, even last night after the game. It's keeping
everyone's feet on the ground. You know, it's great, enjoy it.
You know, we love what we do and obviously give
that result, but you know we want more, you know,
we want their feeling. We've got to want more. We've
got to know that this is not it and that's
the challenge. And you know, just him being him, you know,
(09:22):
I think just gives everyone confidence and lifts everyone to realize, actually,
Je's this is the scuy you know, who's sacrificed it
to be here, and they know they have to lift
their levels and then they realize when they lift those levels,
they well, jeez, I can play at this level. You know,
(09:42):
I can play it at a level that I mean,
we can compete with the best, and so that just
builds confidence. And that's the biggest thing that I think
that he's brought to us. He's a confidence builder. You know,
he's a leader both in his actions and his words,
and I think he's someone that, you know, we're very
fortunate to have and unfortunate that he he aligned us,
(10:04):
hisself with with us. So yeah, I think probably the
word is we're disgrateful, you know, for what he brings
and what he does for us and making sure the
plans would say the same.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Congrats Tana, terrific performance, mate, Thanks for the chat this afternoon.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
Thank you, Jase, appreciate it, No, appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
Thank you, Tana. Tana among that Mawana Pacific a coach
off the back of a significant night in their history
forty five twenty nine winners over the Crusaders in christ
Church last night.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
For more from Weekend Sport with Jason Fine, listen live
to News Talks d B weekends from midday or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio
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