Wairarapa Bush ready for opener

Wairarapa Bush coach Josh Syms was not giving anything away ahead of their opening Heartland Championship match against King Country today.

Former All Black Zac Guildford is set to tie on his boots for the province in their Heartland Championship opener today. Yesterday the 27-year-old was cleared by New Zealand Rugby to play for the Stags against King Country.

Wairarapa head into the fixture after winning two of their four preseason matches, and Syms said he was happy with the progress the team had made.

‘‘We’ve had a pretty good build-up. We would have liked to win more matches in preseason but we’re pretty happy with how the last month has gone.’’

They were bracing for a physical challenge from King Country.

‘‘They are always extremely physical and big. They have big forwards and big inside backs so we will have to be ready for that.’’

Wairarapa had similar goals to the other teams at this stage of the season, Syms said.

‘‘The guys want to be contenders in the Meads Cup, which is probably the goal of most teams in the competition. We probably need to win five or six of our eight matches to do that.’’

The top four teams after eight rounds will contest the Meads Cup, while teams placed 5-8 will play for the Lochore Cup.

Horowhenua-Kapiti begin their campaign this weekend against Thames Valley, and coach Chris Wilton also identified reaching the Meads Cup as an early goal for his side.

‘‘Obviously the first goal is to beat Thames Valley, but we’ve had a couple of good years and want to back that up and be in the Meads Cup.’’

Horowhenua had relied heavily on training to get themselves ready for their opening match, with a shortened preseason leaving them without valuable game time.

‘‘Training has been really good. We only had two preseason matches so didn’t have as many games as we would like but we’ve prepared well.’’

They were expecting Thames Valley to provide a stern challenge, Wilton said.

‘‘They had a shield challenge earlier in the year so they’ve had a bit of time together. Last time we played them in 2014 it was 19-all so we are expecting a tight tussle.’’