Meads Cup wide open in Heartland

A new season, new coach, new assistants, new captains, and the hope of a new result for Thames Valley in this year’s Heartland Championship.

The Swamp Foxes are out to turn around what has been a real struggle of it in recent years, and they get the chance to open their 2017 campaign against the only team that finished below them last season.

Having languished in the bottom four of 12 teams and missing out on even the Lochore Cup playoffs for the past three years, Thames Valley are determined to turn things around, remaining as one of only two sides - neighbours King Country the other - who haven’t been able to crack the top four Meads Cup playoffs in the 11 years the competition has been running.

With Hayden Roe moving on after three years at the helm to coach club rugby in Auckland, Matthew Bartleet takes over the reins, having been assistant to Roger Wilton in 2010-13 then taking the Waihou club from wooden spooners to finalists to back-to-back champions.

Defending champions Wanganui have set the standard, stamping their authority as the powerhouse of the championship, when they took a fifth Meads Cup win last year with a 20-18 win over a brave Buller outfit.

Buller, the country’s smallest union, is also expected to be thereabouts at the business end of the 2017 season.

South Canterbury and Mid Canterbury will also be in the mix, while King Country and Poverty Bay can’t be left out of the equation.

North Otago will also be keen to get back into the top four under new coach Nigel Walsh after claiming the Lochore Cup (for 5th) last season.