Thames Valley won the Meads Cup with an outside back at prop and flankers at lock. It was unconventional to say the least.
THAMES VALLEY WERE THE SURPRISE WINNERS OF THE MEAD S C UP IN 2018 , BECOMING CHAMPIONS WITH FLANKERS IN THEIR SECOND-ROW AND AN OUTSIDE BACK AT PROP.
By finally qualifying for the Meads Cup, for the first time since the inception of Heartland Championship, the 2018 Thames Valley campaign could already have been regarded as an unmitigated success.
Common sense dictated that the fourth-placed plucky Swamp Foxes would bow out manfully following their semifinal against three-time champions Whanganui on their Cooks Gardens fortress.
Thankfully head coach Matt Bartleet and his men refused to accept the preordained script.
To provide some perspective, Thames Valley last won in Whanganui 30 years ago, way back in 1988.
Team spirit appears to have been a major component in this season’s success. You don’t tackle for 60 minutes, living off scraps of possession, like Thames Valley did in the final without displaying a huge desire to play for your mates.
To the rugby purists, the Valley coaching staff of Bartleet, David Harrison and Joe Murray brazenly ignored some of the accepted basic fundamentals of the game. Selecting two flankers to lock their scrum being just one such example.
Te Aroha teenager Cameron Dromgool, whose playing weight is listed at a paltry 93kg, was paired in the engine room with openside flanker Connor McVerry.
The partnership clicked, and their work output was outstanding. McVerry played
the Brad Thorn role making those hard yards in close while his spring-heeled protégé displayed an intuitive knack for popping up in support on the outside shoulder.
Former Waikato and Chiefs player Alex Bradley, returning for his second stint in Thames Valley colours appeared well off the pace during the early rounds, falling off a few regulation tackles against King Country.
However, once the playoffs arrived and the big man had accumulated minutes under his belt, he started hissing.
Not many Heartland Championship players have the go forward of Bradley at full noise.
Without doubt the wackiest strategy of them all was the conversion of veteran outside back Lance Easton to loose-head prop.
Although Easton had previously played the odd game at prop for Tairua, when I saw he had been selected in the Heartland squad as a prop, I thought the cheese had dropped right off Bartleet’s cracker.
The conversion seemed doomed from the get-go after Easton was repeatedly penalised in the loss to West Coast and King Country demolished the Valley pack in one mighty shunt to score off a tighthead.
Grizzled cauliflower veterans shook their heads in frustration, scowling through layers of scar tissue.
Easton’s conversion promised to be the Achilles heel that would derail what promised to be a reasonable season.
Until of course, his cameo in the final, which can only be described as extraordinary.
Replacing Te Huia Kutia in the 59th minute, Easton confounded the critics by producing a scrummaging masterclass.
Once again former NPC prop Bartleet must be congratulated for his intuition.
What the coaching cartel of Bartleet, Harrison and Murray clearly displayed was an absolute conviction that (1) Thames Valley would feature in the playoffs this season and (2) their leftfield selections were on point.
Dromgool and McVerry became the dream locking combination, Bradley
finally hit his straps as Valley went deep in the competition and Easton’s conversion was an unmitigated success. The coaches must be applauded for their absolute self-belief.
The margins between success and failure in the Heartland Championship are minute.
The table was so congested upon the penultimate round that 10 teams had still had mathematical chances to make either the Meads or Lochore Cup play-offs.
By comparison at the halfway point of the 2017 season, with bonus point victories accrued over both Buller and King Country, Thames Valley appeared to be cruising for play-off spot.
By the end of Round Eight they had regressed to a disappointing 9th place. This just serves to illustrate how tight the competition has become. The 2018 Swamp Foxes managed to nail those vital one percenters and emerge on the right side of the ledger.
What does Meads Cup success mean for the Thames Valley union? Those three NPC 3rd Division titles of 1988, 1990 and 1995 aside, there has been little to crow about for diehard Valley fans since the Swamp Foxes were relegated from the now defunct NPC 2nd Division in 2004.
Now the hangovers have finally subsided, recollections of this season will remain forever engraved in the hearts of a staunch Thames Valley rugby community.
Members of the current squad may not fully appreciate the impact of their achievements. Their success will be remembered with similar reverence reserved for the legendary Swamp Fox teams who beat Auckland on Eden Park in 1957 and Australia at Te Aroha in 1962.
Moving forward I also hope the Meads Cup success can be used as a catalyst to spark Thames Valley rugby at every conceivable level.
All Heartland unions are battling a decline in playing and participation numbers and Thames Valley is no exception.
There were glimmers this season that the swamp Foxes age-group representative sides are progressing. The decision to schedule more fixtures against Heartland opponents (as opposed to the neighbouring Mitre 10 Cup unions) has been a massive step in the right direction. Sensible dispensations afforded to the Thames Valley and King Country Roller Mills primary school sides have also helped bridge much needed gaps.
Now is the time for the Thames Valley Rugby Union to rebrand, upgrade, reach out and capitalise on the momentum Bartleet and his squad have emphatically created.
Afterall this 2018 side have demonstrated how fortune favours clearly the brave. Pride has been returned to the Swamp Fox jersey, hearts have been captured. Long may it last.