Tough competition for Wanganui
Wanganui faces one of its toughest opening day Heartland opponents in the 13-year history of the national rugby championship when South Canterbury comes to Cooks Gardens on Saturday.
Steelform Wanganui has won 10 of a dozen first round matches with the only two defeats being 16-17 to King Country here in 2013 and 18-31 against South Canterbury at Timaru the following season.
Since then the Butcher Boys have won a hat-trick of Meads Cup titles, starting with opening day wins over HorowhenuaKa¯ piti 39-34 at Levin in 2015 and rolling West Coast 74-6 in 2016 and Wairarapa-Bush 79-7 at Cooks Gardens last year.
The South Canterbury Stags, top qualifiers last season and Meads Cup semi-finalists for the past three campaigns, will be far tougher opposition this weekend than the Butcher Boys have faced against easy-beat opposition in the first rounds of 2016-17.
The Stags, pipped 29-27 by Wanganui in last year’s semifinals after beating the blue and blacks 21-17 at the same Timaru Stadium a month earlier, have been boosted by half a dozen Canterbury loan or player of origin imports this year
They have beaten Canterbury Ma¯ ori 40-24, neighboring Mid Canterbury 28-17 and Otago B 36-22 in warm-up fixtures.
The 120kg prop Matt Fetu (93 caps), 2017 NZ Heartland flanker Nick Strachan (71 games and scoring 52 points), utility back Jared Trevathan (49 matches and 146 points) and five eighths Miles Medlicott (41 caps) are the most experienced Stags this year.
The six Canterbury loan players comprise three forwards and three backs including Canadian-born first five Daniel Dorgan whose father Craig was a NZ Colt and NZ Divisional player who repped 98 times for the Stags, and great uncle Rod helped South Canterbury take the Ranfurly Shield l8-6 off Marlborough in 1974.
It will be the 20th time that South Canterbury has played in Wanganui since 1894 and over the 124-years the visitors have managed only three victories — 11-8 against a Wanganui XV in 1922 (the same day that Wanganui beat Golden Bay Motueka 17-0 at Takaka), 16-10 in 1954 and 21-16 in a Div 3 championship game in 2002.
Overall Wanganui has won 24 times in 39 games against the Stags with local draws in 1966 (17-all) and 1997 (14-all) and 13 defeats.
In Heartland fixtures Wanganui has won nine of 11 games with the two losses, both in Timaru, 18-31 in 2014 and 17-21 last season.
Wanganui has beaten South Canterbury three times in championship play-offs — 17-14 in the 2003 NPC Div 3 semi-finals, 28-11 in the 2015 Meads Cup final and 29-14 in the Meads Cup semis last winter. After being beaten 34-19 by the Hawke’s Bay Saracens last Saturday in the last warm-up fixture the Butcher Boys will need an improved effort this weekend to start the championship campaign with a win. The Wanganui Toyota Development team, defending the RDO Shield, plays Wellington Ma¯ ori Development in the 1pm curtain-raiser.
Despite finishing on the penultimate rung of the Tasman Tanning senior club qualifying table, with only two wins from 10 matches, Marist Buffalos finished the season in a blaze of glory to win the WRFU consolation title (the Wilson Cup). Buffalos won the last five matches including 48-24 over Utiku OB in the semi-finals and then Kaierau 26-19 in the final to avenge a 7-23 first round consolation loss.
Buffalos won seven of 16 matches and had a 22-all draw with Border with Jake Lockett the star, scoring 119 points including 13 tries.
In the following roundup of the senior consolation teams * denotes Stihl Shop Wanganui Challenge Shield fixtures:
■ Marist Buffalos — Seventh Record — Played 16. Won 7. Drawn 1. Lost 8. Points for 332, against 416, differential minus 184 pts. Tries for 53, against 65. Qualifying — v Pirates Lost 5-39 (H), Won 53-33. v Celtic Lost 17-34 (H). v Ruapehu Won 29-5 (A) and 27-14 (A). v Kaierau Won *23-18 (A), Lost 7-23 (A). v Marton Lost *5-42 (A). v Hunterville Lost 0-37 (H). v Utiku OB Lost 26-27 (A), Won 19-17 (H). v Taihape Lost 17-44 (H). v Border Drew 22-all (H). v Counties Lost *8-18 (H). Consolation semi-final: v Utiku IOB Won 48-24 (H). Final: v Kaierau Won 26-19 (H). Top points scorers — 119 Jake Lockett, 50 Ryan Gill and Raponi Tofa. Most tries: 13 Lockett, 6 Gill and Tofa, 5 Ethan Firmin. 16 try scorers. Placings since 2008: 1 3 5 7 5 5 10 11 8 7 (2018).
■ Kaierau — Eighth Record — Played 16, Won 6, Lost
10. Points for 317, against 407, differential minus 90 pts. Tries for 47, against 63. Qualifying — v Counties Lost 0-29 (A). v Marton Lost 7-27 (H). v Pirates Won 15-12 (A) and 25-20 (H). v Border Won *27-26 (H). v Buffalo’s Lost *18-23 (H), Won 23-7 (H). v Celtic Lost 10-37 (A). v Taihape Lost 26-44 (A).v Hunterville Lost 29-32 (H). v Ruapehu Lost 12-22 (A), Won 48-10 (H). v Utiku OB Lost 18-24 (H) and 18-30 (A). Consolation semi-final: v Pirates Won 22-38 (on protest). Final: v Buffalo’s Lost 19-26 (A). Top points scorers — :50 Dion Hyland, 31 Andrew Hausman. Most tries: 7 Hyland, 5 Hausman and Thomas Chadfield. 23 try scorers. Placings since 2008: 7 4 7 4 10 6 13 9 6 10 8 (2018).
■ Utiku OB — Ninth Record — Played 15, Won 7, Lost
8. Points for 301, against 357, differential minus 56 pts. Tries for 50, against 55. Qualifying — v Taihape Won 22-21 (H) v Counties Lost 10-20 (A). v Hunterville Lost 5-50 (H). v Border Lost 10-39 (A). v Ruapehu Won 33-5 (A) and 39-0 (H), v Marton Lost *7-15 (A). v Buffalo’s Won 27-26 (H), Lost 17-19 (A). v Pirates Won 24-19 (H), Lost 12-14 (A).v Kaierau Won 24-18 (H) and 30-18 (A). v Celtic Lost 17-45 (A). Consolation semi-final: v Buffalo’s Lost 24-48 (A). Top points scorer — 64 Karl Farrell. Most tries: 10 Farrell, 5 Wai Gray. 23 try scorers. Placings since 2008: 10 9 11 6 7 8 11 13 12 — 9 (2018).
■ Seales Winslow Pirates — Tenth
Record — Played 15. Won 5. Lost
10. Points for 363, against 442, differential minus 79 pts. Tries for 55, against 72. Qualifying — v Buffalo’s Won 39-5 (H), Lost 33-53 (H). v Border Lost *0-53 (A). v Kaierau Lost 12-15 (H), lost 20-25 (A). v Celtic Lost 10-45 (H). v Marton Lost 7-29 (H). v Taihape Lost 20-26 (A).v Counties Won 27-18 (A). v Ruapehu Won 57-12 (H), Won 55-25 (A). v Utiku OB Lost 19-24 (A), Won 14-12 (H). v Hunterville Lost 12-78 (A). Consolation semifinal: Lost Kaierau 38-22 (by protest). Top points scorers — 39 Kitiamu Luaipou, 34 Joey Waaka, 30 Tristan Slight. Most tries: 6 Luaipou, 5 Junior Tavaloto, Matt Davis and Josh Metekingi. 25 try scorers. Placings since 2008: 11 7 10 11 2 6 6 7 10 4 10 (2018).
■ Ruapehu — Eleventh Record — Played 14. Won 1, Lost
13. Points for 157, against 485, differential minus 328 pts. Tries for 27, against 78. Qualifying — v Hunterville Lost 10-52 (A). v Counties Lost 0-22 (H). v Marton Lost by default (A). v Buffalo’s Lost 5-29 (H) and 14-27 (H). v Utiku OB Lost 5-33 (H) and 0-39 (A).v Celtic Lost 10-54 (A). v Pirates Lost 12-57 (A) and 25-55 (H). v Kaierau Won 22-12 (H), Lost 10-48 (A). v Taihape Lost 24-33 (A). v Border Lost 20-24 (H). Highest points scorer — 35 Tiani Wallace. Most tries: 7 Wallace. 14 try scorers. Placings since 2008: 4 22392219711(2018).