12-to-one odds for team
Captain to play 100th game for his province
Horowhenua-Ka¯piti will be hoping to open their 2022 Bunnings Warehouse Heartland Championship season account with an away game against East Coast in Ruatoria tomorrow, and so might punters.
TAB have released their odds for the outright winner of the Meads Cup at the end of the season, where bookmakers had teased out odds of 12-to-one for a Horowhenua-Ka¯piti title win.
East Coast were even less fancied and were among the outsiders at 36-to-one, which suggests the headto-head odds will have HorowhenuaKa¯ piti as favourites — especially given the oil that it’s captain Ryan Shelford’s 100th game for his province.
But word is East Coast will be no pushover. Hosea Gear is coaching the team again, they have assembled a strong squad, and their wasn’t much in it the last time the two teams met.
Reigning champions South Canterbury were competition favourites at just $2.50 for a repeat, while the remaining odds reflect the early pecking order: Whanganui ($3.25), Thames Valley ($7), North Otago ($8), Mid Canterbury ($9), West Coast ($10), Poverty Bay ($18), Wairarapa Bush ($31), Buller ($51), and King Country ($51).
There could be some value on offer as both King Country and Thames Valley celebrate their centenaries this season with a good showing, while Wairarapa Bush are celebrating 50 years.
New silverware had been introduced to the competition this season. While teams had vyed for the Meads Cup and Lochore Cup since the inaugural 2006 championship, two new trophies had been introduced for 2022.
One was the Bill Osborne Taonga, played under similar rules to the Ranfurly Shield where it is defended by the holder at all home matches. Poverty Bay were the current holders and their first defence will come in round two against Wairarapa-Bush in Gisborne.
Also, from this season forth, the Bunnings Warehouse Heartland Championship Player of the Year award has been renamed the Ian Kirkpatrick Medal in recognition of the legendary former All Blacks Captain, loose forward and current NZR patron.
Kirkpatrick, who played 113 matches for the All Blacks, got his representative rugby start with a Heartland Union, for the combined Poverty BayNga¯ti Porou East Coast side.
In a broadcasting first, one match every week will be broadcast live on Sky and available free-to-air on Prime for the 2022 season. Round one will see two games broadcast live with South Canterbury v Thames Valley, and the Wairarapa-Bush and North Otago match live on Sky
Sport.
Horowhenua-Ka¯piti would again be coached by Chris Wilton with Aleni Feagaiga as assistant coach. Tom Zimmerman would again manage the team with help from Tipu Luke. Nick McVeigh has the job of video analysis, while the physio team comprises of Debbie Jackson and Yurri Hynson.
HK carried a squad of 39 into two preseason matches in recent weeks,
which included a win against Central Hawke’s Bay and a narrow loss to Wellington Ma¯ori last week.
The wider squad had now been whittled down to 29, with a 23-man team named to play tomorrow representing an increase on the 22-squad number from previous seasons to allow teams to includer an extra front row forward in the event of injury to prevent uncontestable scrums.
The squad has an experienced look about it as Scott Cameron (60 games), Dave McErlean (57), Joel Winterburn (30), Aaron Lahmert (59), Hamish Buick (26) and Willie Paia’aua
(35) all know the story by now.
There was some real excitment about the loan players named in the winder squad. Number eight Callum Watts-Pointer is from Porirua club Norths, centre Tatutau Kapea, an exParaparaumu player, has been playing in Hamilton, first five-eight Te Atawhai Mason comes from Kia Toa in Manawatu¯, as does hooker Sase Va’a. Only three of those players can be named in the squad each week, creating a real battle for positions.
Meanwhile, the team flew from Palmerston North to Gisborne early this morning and will take the twohour
bus trek to Ruatoria tomorrow before flying home on Sunday.
The team also has a new sponsor this year — Amohia Te Waiora — which means “We’re Stronger without Alcohol”.