Wanganui win 21-10 in key game
There were not many tries scored but Steelform Wanganui managed a vital 21-10 home victory over main rivals South Canterbury in the opening qualifying round of the Mitre 10 2018 Heartland championship at Cooks Gardens last Saturday.
There was a disappointingly small crowd to watch a key game for both unions who are the two pre favourites to win the Meads Cup this season. The Butcher Boys, who made it 10 wins from a dozen Heartland fixtures against South Canterbury and preserved an unbeaten home record, were held to 3-all at halftime but played well with the wind in the second spell to take control.
It was only the second time at Cooks Gardens that Wanganui has been level pegging half way through a home Heartland match, the previous occasion being in 2008 when the hosts beat Buller 42-10 after being held to 10-all at the interval.
There have been three other fixtures when the blue and blacks have been level at halftime, all away from home — versus Horowhenua-Kapiti (15-all) in the 2015 opening round won by Wanganui 39-34; against North Otago (7-all) in the 2014 Lochore Cup final won 14-12 by Wanganui in Oamaru; and again against North Otago (8-all) in the 2007 Meads Cup final won by the Old Golds 25-8.
Although the victory last Saturday was a major step towards winning a fourth successive Meads Cup there are some areas that need to be tidied up — the lineout throw-ins, first five eighths control, and more aggressive mid-field attacking.
These are areas that need attention during the coming qualifying fixtures.
But the taming of South Canterbury, the top qualifiers last season, who were restricted to a single late game try, was a great start to the new season.
South Canterbury, beaten 27-24 by Buller in Westport last season in the opening round, scored 45 tries, averaging 7.3 in each of nine fixtures. South Canterbury host Poverty Bay this coming Saturday.
The Butcher Boys are away for the next two weekends to play opponents who also won last weekend — West Coast, who shaded Thames Valley 27-25 at Paeroa, and Poverty Bay who held off Wairarapa-Bush 27-22 in Gisborne.
Highest victory was King Country’s 11-try 72-17 home win over East Coast in Te Kuiti.
North Otago beat Buller 30-24 in Oamaru and Lochore Cup champions Mid Canterbury beat 2017 Meads Cup runners-up Horowhenua-Kapiti by the same score in Foxton.
Current Heartland points — King Country, Poverty Bay and Mid Canterbury 5, Wanganui, North Otago and West Coast 4, Horowhenua-Kapiti and Buller 2, Wairarapa-Bush, South Canterbury and Thames Valley 1, East Coast 0.
Heavy Field Likely
Wanganui could face a heavy field when it meets West Coast in the second qualifying round of the Heartland championship in Greymouth on Saturday.
Despite winning the Meads Cup last season, Wanganui did not handle wet tracks well and the weather forecast for Greymouth this week is for a few days of rain leading up to the weekend fixture.
Although the Coast has a poor record against Wanganui over the years, with just three wins in 19 games since 1985, the only home success was 23-17 at Rugby Park when the Butcher Boys last played in Greymouth in 2014.
West Coast’s other two wins were at Cooks Gardens — 25-24 in 2013 and 21-5 in 2013.
Wanganui has scored 736 points and conceded 253 (average score 39-13) with five wins over the half-century mark — 81-9 in 1993, 74-6 in 2016 and 68-0 in 1988 in home fixtures and 69-12 in 2011 and 52-7 in 2008 at Greymouth.
Coast has qualified for the Meads Cup semifinals twice — in 2008 before losing 48-13 at Cooks Gardens with the Butcher Boys carrying on to the win the Heartland championship for the first time, 27-12 at home a week later over Mid Canterbury and in 2013 only to be pipped 28-25 by eventual champions Mid Canterbury at Ashburton.
Last season West Coast qualified for the Lochore Cup final for a second time, playing the final against Mid Canterbury in Methven with only 14 players for most of the match and losing 47-15. In 2009 Coast lost 13-21 in a home final against North Otago.
This year West Coast’s squad includes four loan players — 1.98m Auckland University lock Tumma Tu’ulua and returning Christchurch Marist lock and again Coast skipperJosh Manning (23 caps for the red and whites), Belfast No 8 Amenatave Tukana (17 rep caps) and Sumner five eighths Nik Cumming (24 caps). The Player of Origin is Shirley club five-eighths Nathan Smith (6 caps).
The most experienced squad members are 93-game 33-year-old utility back Maleli Mudu, the union’s most capped player, No 8 Brad Houston (69 games), hooker Troy Tauwhare (57), mid-field back Sean McClure (45), fellow mid-fielder Regan Stanton (33) and flanker Brad Tauwhare (34).
Five eighths Tom Reekie repped for NZ Heartland.
West Coast, chasing back to back home wins over the Butcher Boys, and almost certainly on a heavy field, will provide Wanganui with formidable opposition.
Park Name Change
When Wanganui plays West Coast in Greymouth on Saturday it will be for the eighth and last time at Rugby Park.
The West Coast union has followed in the footsteps of Wanganui away back in 1926 in naming its main playing field after a former NZRU president.
With permission of the Wanganui City Council the WRFU changed the name of its Hatrick Street field from the Recreation Field (‘Rec’) ” to Spriggens Park, in honour of well known businessman George Spriggens who became NZRFU president in 1917.
Earlier this year the West Coast RFU decided to change the name of Rugby Park in Greymouth to John Sturgeon Park to recognise the contribution of the NZRFU life member (2012) and national president in 2009-10.
John Sturgeon, who received an ONZM award from Wanganuiborn Governor-General Sir Jerry Mateparae for services to rugby, and also recipient of an MBE in 1992, was first elected to the NZRU council in 1987 and also managed NZ Sevens, NZ Colts and the All Blacks from 1998-1991.
He played club rugby in Greymouth from 1954-1968, served on the West Coast union’s management committee from 1976, was union chairman in 1984-1986 and served the union again between 2000-2007, breing elected a union life member.
Heavily involved in the coalmining industry, and living in Runanga, John Sturgeon was appointed chairman of Development West Coast in 2010 and served on the West Coast Community Trust, the West Coast Sports Awards Trust, the Halberg Trust and the Solid Energy SportsTrust.
George Spriggens, who was born in Hertfordshire and emigrated to New Zealand in 1874, was a competent Wanganui athlete who played his first game of rugby for the Wanganui fire brigade team when a volunteer fireman, a task he undertook between 1884 and the mid 1920s. He became president of the NZ Fire Brigade Association.
He joined Wanganui Pirates and after his playing days was president of the club between 1899 and 1908 before starting a remarkable 25 years as Wanganui RFU president. There was also a stint as president of the Wanganui Hockey Association.
George Spriggens, who was deputy mayor of Wanganui for many years after the World War 1, ran a “tote” at horse races in the Wanganui-TaranakiManawatu region for around 50 years. He died in June 1944 after a long career that included a great deal of volunteer and community work.
The Wanganui Herald on February 5, 1908, had recorded — “Probably no other rugby union in New Zealand has received so much practical help from any one individual as the Wanganui union has received from Mr Spriggens.”
Spriggens Park was used for Wanganui major representative and club rugby fixtures between since 1926 until a fire destroyed the main stand on January 22, 1994.
Club rugby is still played at the park along with lower grade rep matches and the Hatrick Raceway, one of the busiest greyhound tracks in the country, also operates there.
Local rep rugby is held at Cooks Gardens.
Although some unions have club grounds named after families or individuals — Wanganui has Dallison Park in Waverley and McNab Domain at Upokongaro — Wanganui and West Coast are the only two unions in the country with major grounds named in honour of individuals.
Note — The covered stand at Spriggens Park, the Bevege Stand, is named after another Wanganui NZRU president, Ernie Bevege, who was the 1961 national head.
The main gates at the ground were donated by George Spriggens and designed by his friend Thomas Battle who also designed the £40,000 threestoreyed Grand Hotel for him. The gates and hotel were built in 1926-27.