Heartland games weather the storm
All opening round games in the Heartland Championship will kick off as planned after the West Coast dodged a weather bomb bullet.
Buller and the West Coast are hosting Mid Canterbury and Whanganui in Westport and Greymouth, respectively, today despite heavy rain in the northern South Island this week.
‘‘Most of it seems to have missed us,’’ a relieved Buller Rugby Union chief executive Andrew Duncan said.
‘‘If you’d asked me 24 or 48 hours ago, I would have said it might have to be cancelled. We’ve had quite a bit of rain, but most of it has hit the Tasman district, especially the severe weather.’’
Duncan was able to advise visitors Mid Canterbury and the match officials that the match would go ahead. A state of emergency was declared in Westport this week and Civil Defence officials have been working from Buller’s Victoria Square home ground.
Duncan said the union had had assurances ‘‘the field and the facilities will be available to us on Saturday’’.
Greymouth’s John Sturgeon Park is expected to be in good nick, according to West Coast Rugby Union chief executive Mike Connors.
He said Greymouth had avoided the worst of the storm and the only way the game would be affected was if the weather worsened and Whanganui were unable to travel to the Coast by air or by road via Christchurch. The Bunnings Warehouse Heartland Championship kicks off with a juicy televised fixture – a repeat of last year’s Meads Cup final between champions South Canterbury and Thames Valley – in Temuka.
South Canterbury have retained most of their title-winning squad and go into the Heartland with some confidence after pushing Hawke’s Bay to 38-20 in a Ranfurly Shield challenge in Napier in June.
Coach Nigel Walsh said it was exciting to revisit the Meads Cup final this weekend, but South Canterbury were looking ahead.
‘‘We’ve had the pleasure of holding the Meads Cup over the summer, but now we are starting from scratch again. We’re not defending it, we’ve got to go out and win it again.’’
Walsh coached the New Zealand Heartland XV last year and is wellplaced to assess the competition’s strengths.
South Canterbury will again field their four Heartland XV backs – Sireli Buliruarua, Paula Fifita, Zac Saunders and Willie Wright – and forwards Nick Strachan and Tokomaata Fakatava while loan players Zach McKay (Canterbury) and Sam Briggs (Tasman) will return after helping win last year’s title.
Thames Valley, who celebrate their union’s 100th anniversary in round two, would love nothing better to win a centennial season title to go with their 2018 Meads Cup win.
Whanganui, coached by Heartland XV co-coach Jason Hamlin, will have 2021 Heartland XV representatives Dane Whale and Tomici
Today (all games 2.30pm):
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Seruwalu in their backline. Whale will captain the side in Greymouth, with his brother, Ben, on the blindside flank.
Mid Canterbury have a headline act in 34-year-old former Highlanders and Tonga captain Nasi Manu, now settled in Ashburton.
Lochore Cup runners-up North Otago beat Otago Country 38-17 and won the Maroon and Gold Cup fixture against King Country 26-24 in Taupō. Hayden Todd, a Heartland XV midfielder, will anchor the North Otago backline while Hayden Tisdall looks likely to lead the side.
King Country won’t have All Blacks captain Sam Cane this season, but the province that produced test brothers Colin and Stan Meads will be determined for success in their 100th representative season.
Meanwhile, there’s a drought to be broken for the two West Coast region teams. Buller are searching for their first Heartland win in three years, dating back to round eight 2019, CEO Duncan said.
He has high hopes, with ‘‘a new loan player, an exciting 10 out of Canterbury, Jack Parker’’, and a strong management team under first-year head coach Nathan Thompson, forwards coach Ti’i Paulo (the exCrusaders, Tasman Mako and Samoa hooker) and backs coach James Lash, Buller’s record points scorer.
West Coast are the only the Heartland union never to have won a New Zealand rugby competition title. But they recently won the Seddon Shield, contested by top of the South Island unions, and there will be no chance of any slackening off with assistantcoach Troy Tauwhare on the pitch as Coast’s starting hooker.