Super Rugby Pacific: Highlanders’ Clarke Dermody wants his players to be more clinical

Highlanders assistant coach Clarke Dermody wants his side to take responsibility and opportunities to turn their season around.

The Dunedin side has endured a poor season thus far, winning only one game of nine played thus far as they sit near the bottom of the Super Rugby Pacific table.

Use opportunities

Their next assignment is playing against newcomers Fijian Drua in Fiji, and Dermody wants the team to be more clinical.

“I think it could be a lot of different reasons,” Dermody told Stuff. “I don’t think early in the season the forwards were creating enough quick ball for the backs to operate.

“Now, it’s making sure we take the right option. Every review we have, we see a lot of opportunity.

“I guess it’s making sure the players can see that at the time, and not on Mondays.”

Dermody identified poor starts as one of their weaknesses which has prevented the team from hitting their straps during the tournament.

“Our job is to look for the positives for our boys, and we do see the team getting better in areas,” Dermody said.

“One area we’ve talked is the start of the game this week. It’s hurt us for the last two or three.

“We end up in games, but we’re leaving ourselves too much to do in the second half. We feel like our game is good enough to beat these teams, but potentially we’re not quite starting well enough.”

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