Default repeat looks unlikely
Everything points towards Linton Army fielding a team against Freyberg at Colquhoun Park tomorrow.
After Linton defaulted to Varsity last Saturday, it has been action stations at the army camp, with senior officers, envoys of the camp commander, aiming to put things right.
Within a day a club committee was reformed and a plea made to unit commanders to help by freeing up players to represent the army from the country’s biggest Defence Force establishment.
Coach Ben James also paid a visit to the Manawatu¯ Rugby Union to explain the unique situation that is army rugby.
As he said, the default definitely made a point and was also a cry for help.
The Linton Cobras rugby league club no longer appear to be fielding a team and James said the army command didn’t want their team pulling out of senior rugby.
‘‘They see the value in it, being part of the community,’’ James said.
‘‘Now, hopefully we will get a bit more top cover towards getting players released to play. Things are moving forward.’’
But even the Easter holiday break has proved difficult. Most of the soldiers are not from Manawatu¯ and Easter is a chance for them to get home.
James made a plea to switch the game against Freyberg, which kicks off at 2.45pm tomorrow, to tonight or even tomorrow at noon, but Freyberg couldn’t accommodate them.
‘‘I’m pretty confident we will have a team.
‘‘This could be our chance to win a game.’’
James is hopeful if they can get through tomorrow – they have the bye the following week and by May reinforcements are due back.
Among them should be former Turbos prop Hakarangi Tichborne, who has been playing while on a promotion course, midfielder Tamatoa Ropati, flanker Jimmy Berghan, fullback Hamiora Thomas, who should be back in two weeks, and others.
As scores blow out each week,
‘Now, hopefully we will get a bit more top cover towards getting players released to play. Things are moving forward.’’ Ben James, Linton coach
Freyberg, under coach Mike Lalogafau, offer a ray of hope in that they always have players in numbers and find a way to score at least two tries a game.
Manawatu¯ ’s club rugby executive met on Monday to discuss the general malaise of the competition and chairman Dan Lewis acknowledged there were wider issues they needed to deal with. It was a concern that the Linton default meant three teams dipped out on rugby last Saturday and that there were teams of varying abilities.
‘‘We are taking a month to see what the future looks like,’’ Lewis said.
‘‘This is not doing any favours for aspiring Turbos players at the moment.’’
So far this season he noted there have been only three games with margins of fewer than seven points.
Meanwhile, in sane times of the past, club rugby didn’t start until after Easter so teams could head off to their Easter tournaments.
And yet already we have had five rounds played, although at least the dreaded Easter double-headers have gone.
There are potentially two tight matches tomorrow. Varsity host Kia Toa at Massey University and Varsity’s last outing came when they were below strength and were thumped 46-19 by Old Boys-marist. Kias showed they had scoring power for the first 40 before succumbing to Feilding Old Boys-o¯ roua last Saturday.
College Old Boys have laid waste to almost everyone, so FOB-O¯ roua will need to hold them up front and hold the ball to prevent COB’S counter-attacks.
OBM, yet another team squashed by COB, get the chance to bounce back when they host Te Kawau at the Arena.
Competition points: COB 24, Feilding 20, FOBO 17, OBM 15, Kia Toa 12, Varsity 9, Te Kawau 5, Linton Army 1, Freyberg 0.