Sherratt shuffles front line

[of the campaign], you start to fall away.’’

Taranaki have hit form in recent weeks after three early losses and Robertson said they were becoming consistent and ‘‘playing typical Taranaki style’’.

‘‘They can turn it up up front and they’ve got some power out wide... they’re looking good.’’

Robertson is mindful of the threat posed by Taranaki’s midfield, captain Charlie Ngatai at second five-eighths and centre Seta Tamanivalu, last year’s NPC player of the year.

But Robertson has beefed up his own pack with in-form ex-All Black lock Dominic Bird and test props Moody and Nepo Laulala.

The biggest selection head scratcher for the coaches this week was at blindside flanker where Prinsep has edged out Tom Sanders. ‘‘Reed’s been an extremely consistent performer. He just gives us that real physical edge, his stats have been ideal, and he’s really accurate in what he does.’’

Meanwhile the chances of one-test Taranaki lock James Broadhurst being called into the All Blacks at the World Cup are over after he was ruled out for the season because of on-going concussion problems.

Broadhurst, 27, has not played since he suffered a sickening blow for Taranaki in their opening national provincial championship match against Wellington on August 15. He saw a specialist on Wednesday who said he was still not fit to play.

In last night’s match in Whangarei, Bay of Plenty had little trouble dispatching their championship rival Northland 37-5.

The Bay clinched a bonus point fourth try in the final minute. Canterbury women’s rugby coach John Sherratt has shuffled his front pack in preparation for their must win match in Wellington on Saturday.

Captain Stephanie Te OhaereFox shifts from hooker to prop, moving Molly Wright into the number two jersey with Philippa Love taking a seat on the bench.

Stacey Anderson steps into lock this week, with Estelle Uren moving from the second row to the back row and taking the 7 jersey.

Sherratt expected Wellington to play a very physical game and so was looking to his backline to move Wellington around the pitch.

He had allowed some of his reserves a chance to take the field in their 58-5 win against Hawkes Bay last week, and the big winner is Lucy Anderson who moves from the bench to the starting centre position. 18-year-old Olivia McGoverne has moved on to the bench to make way for Anderson.

Other changes to the backline are centre Tori Harding moving to left wing and Keilamarita Pouri-Lane starts at fullback.

It also means that some Canterbury’s starting XV will have slightly fresher legs as they fight for a place in the top four of the Women’s NPC competition. Waikato are sitting at the top of the table with twenty points, Auckland a single point behind them with a game in hand.

The fight for third and fourth is turning into a four way battle between Wellington, Counties Manukau, Otago and Canterbury who are all within five points of each other.

‘‘This will sort of define our season in a sense, whether we can make top four or not, ‘‘ Sherratt said. ‘‘Wellington knocked over Counties Manukau that makes it interesting, so we’ve just to raise the level.’’

The South Island teams who currently sit in fifth and sixth are taking on higher ranked teams.