Semis can throw up surprises

We’re all set to go with our club semifinals and for me, the match-ups were relatively predictable. In Marlborough, Central and Waitohi would be the hot favourites to play off for the title yet again and in Nelson, Waimea and Wanderers have been the form teams for most of the season.

But as they say in semifinals rugby, it’s all on the day.

Those games can be sticky to win and the challengers deserve their shots.

Marist have had a great comeback this season and Kahurangi have shown a lot of spunk, and Awatere and Harlequins have both been battling away all season.

So they should be exciting matches.

I’ll have selectors at all of them and we’ll have a big job after the semis on Saturday to pick the final emerging players squad.

We’ll have them in Havelock for a planning session on Sunday so that we can essentially stay out of the way and give them the whole week off for those who will be involved in club finals the next weekend.

The big game of last Saturday was Waimea handing Waitohi their first loss of the season.

It may not have had much effect on the playoff picture but that didn’t mean it was a dead rubber.

I watched film of the game and it was all on.

There was no love lost in that match. The passion was great, the hits were big, and it could have gone either way.

Home advantage was probably the deciding factor for Waimea.

We selectors are still having robust debate about the emerging players squad for the development tour of games against Canterbury and Otago. That will be an opportunity to blood some young players and see how they handle that higher level of rugby – to see the whites of their eyes, so to speak.

With that squad and the Nelson Griffins and the Marlborough Red Devils, it is about shuffling players around to give them opportunities. These are essentially three rep teams because you need stepping stones.

You can’t just throw promising players into the Makos – they need that preparation because the professional game has become so high impact that players need to be prepared physically and mentally.

We don’t want players who just make the Makos – we want players who can succeed in the Makos. You don’t want to play a game or two for the Makos – you want a career.