Tony Johnson

Toss a coin.

Poor old Islanders have to watch the weekend.

A bye is a rotten thing.

Yeah, it's bizarre.

Look, it's a season that I think promised so much.

I had them as Miss Smoky at the start of the year, but then they suffered those two terrible injuries to two of the real up-and-coming stars in New Zealand rugby.

Obviously, Dylan Pledger and Fabian Holland as well.

We thought with Holland and Labanini in the middle of the scrum,

They'd have a powerful injury.

Yeah, they have.

But their forward force could have been even stronger.

Lavanini hasn't really produced what I thought it might.

He took a long time before he was ready to play and then he had an injury.

what have you, they've still thrown up some really good talent.

But yeah, disappointing season.

I thought they might have had a big one.

And I think that a lot of things have conspired against that happening.

That all happened in a very short space of time.

Those injuries and the whole thing about Jamie, who I think a lot of people thought was going to be the next All Black coach before we really knew who was in for the job.

So yeah, it's just one of those years that it offered a lot and it just didn't come to fruition or didn't materialise for a number of reasons.