Butcher Boys lose vital fixtures
“The whole town’s talking about the Butcher Boys, the Butcher Boys — they act mighty peculiar now...”
The adapted lyrics to the old Jones Boys refrain reflect the performances of the 2019 Steelform Wanganui rugby team in the opening rounds of the current Mitre 10 Heartland championship.
Wanganui was deservedly beaten 36-30 by defending Meads Cup champions Thames Valley at Cooks Gardens on Saturday after a third successive Heartland defeat.
After losing to the Swamp Foxes 17-7 in the cup semi-finals last season, losing the Bruce Steel Cup 28-18 to WairarapaBush at the start of this season and now a 6pt-loss to Valley it is only the second time in the 14-year history of Heartland rugby that the blue and blacks have dropped three successive championship fixtures.
The only previous trio of successive defeats was the shock 27-29 loss to East Coast in the 2012 Meads Cup final at Ruatoria and then losing 16-17 to King Country here and 11-15 away to Buller at the start of 2013 under different coaches.
Now it has happened under seven-times champion head coach Jason Caskey who is not a “happy chappie”.
Things were ticking along nicely when his side was up 18-3 a quarter of the way through last weekend’s match but this was reduced to 25-19 by half-time after a few missed tackles and conceding three successful penalty goals.
The determined and stronger Swamp Foxes dominated the second spell and with accurate goal-kicker Regan Crosland landing a further four penalties Wanganui was on the back foot for most of the time.
Only a late try enabled Wanganui to salvage two consolation bonus points, outscoring Valley4-3.
Crosland’s seven successful penalties, all from close range, were the most the Butcher Boys have conceded in 130 Heartland games. G Parker (Poverty Bay v Buller in 2013) and the Thames Valley pair of D Harrison (v Mid Canterbury in 2009) and J Reynolds (v East Coast in 2011) also landed seven penalties.
Prior to the start of Heartland rugby Wanganui conceded seven penalties to King Country’s J Peina in an NPC match at Te Kuiti in 2000.
Wanganui will have its four NZ 2009 Heartland reps — halfback Lindsay Horrocks, fullback Craig Clare, mid field back Penijamini Nabainivalu and loose forward Campbell Hart — again available for the match against Buller in Westport this weekend.
Valley was minus three Heartland reps on Saturday but the Foxes fielded four very experienced loan players from major unions Auckland, Waikato and Bay of Plenty.
The goal kicking of national team-mates Craig Clare and James Lash could play a major role in the outcome of the Wanganui — Buller Mitre 10 Heartland rugby match in Westport on Saturday.
They played for NZ Heartland against Manu Samoa at Eden Park last weekend but this time they will be opposing each other on Victoria Square.
The pair had a memorable kicking duel at Cooks Gardens in the 2016 Meads Cup final with Clare saving the bacon for the Butcher Boys with 14 points (a try plus two penalties and two conversions) in a shaky 20-18 victory. Tries counted for 6pts and penalties 2pts that season.
Lash, who scored a Heartland record 147 points that year, managed only 6pts, missing several penalties.
It was the second time in three years that Buller, the 2012 Lochore Cup champions, had reached the Meads final, losing 36-13 to Mid Canterbury in the 2014 final. Lash, a 29-year-old former Reefton, Karamea and Waimea club player who missed a few games last year because of injury is on loan from Tasman this season.
He started the current season with 448 points from 42 games for Buller and opened this year with 24pts (two tries and seven conversions) in a handsome 54-19 home win over struggling East Coast. Lash holds the Buller record of 25 points in a match when Mid Canterbury was beaten 40-32 at home in 2017.
Buller dropped from fourth to 10th last season, including a 14-45 loss at Cooks Gardens, after reaching two Meads finals and two other Top Four play-offs since 2014.
The team has a very experienced halfback in 38-yearold Andrew Stephens who started the season with 107 rep caps and 261 points.
In addition to Lash Buller also has another Tasman loan player, 1.96m lock Isei Lewaqal. Heaviest squad member is 123kg front rower Anthony Ellis who has 40-plus rep caps.
Mid-field back Illesa Ravudra has scored 140 points from his 40-plus matches.
Returning to his former home town is current Wanganui midfielder Penijamini Nabainivalu, a NZ Heartland rep who played against the Butcher Boys in the 2016 Meads final and scored one of five tries here against Buller last season. He repped 76 times for Buller.
Coaster double
Wanganui flies off to Westport this weekend to tackle Buller in the first of a rare Heartland back to back weekend of matches against the two South Island West Coast unions.
It last happened in 2008 and 2009 when Steelform Wanganui won all four fixtures — 42-10 at Cooks Gardens and 13-7 away over Buller and 52-7 in Greymouth and 33-9 on Cooks Gardens against West Coast in the early years of Heartland rugby.
The Butcher Boys have a good record against the two southern unions, winning 36 of 45 games, losing three times to Coast and six against Buller.
Only year that both South Island unions beat Wanganui in the same season was in 2013 when Buller won15-11 at home and 40-30 in a Lochore Cup semifinal at Cooks Gardens with visiting West Coast edging the hosts 25-24.
That was the poorest Heartland season when the union experimented with a new coaching regime for a year after suffering a shock 27-29 loss to Ngati Porou East Coast in the Meads Cup final in Ruatoria after leading 27-3.
The former coaching staff was resurrected the following year and won the Lochore Cup.
Overall Wanganui has managed an average winning score of 49-18 in 20 clashes against West Coast since the first game in 1985 with a highest victory of 81-9 in a local NPC Div 3 fixture in 1993.
The Coasters, who play at Cooks Gardens on Saturday week, recorded back to back wins in 2013 (25-24 here) and 2014 (23-17 in Greymouth).
This weekend Buller, who gave Wanganui a hell of fright before being shaded 20-18 in the 2016 Meads Cup final at Cooks Gardens, will be seeking a fifth win from 10 fixtures at Victoria Square over the blue and blacks.
Buller won 20-13 in 1995 and 23-18 in 2002 at home in the NPC Div 3 days and 19-15 in 2007 and 15-11 in 2013 during the Heartland era. There was also a 13-6 win during Wanganui’s three-match southern tour in 1975, a year before the North and South Island Div 2 competitions started. They ran for nine seasons before the national divisional championships started in 1985.
Buller has enjoyed two successes on visits to the River City — 15-12 in 1967 and 40-30 in the 2013 Lochore semis.
Highest score in 25 fixtures between the two unions was 81-12 here during a very busy 18-match 1994 season when Stu Selby, Dave Kereti, John Hainsworth and Neil Bell each scored two tries in the 11-try feast.
Guy Lennox kicked 26 points (two penalty goals and a local record 10 conversions which matched the local rep high set by Lachlan Harding the previous season in an 81-9 win over West Coast on the same home ground. The shared record still stands.
Wanganui also collected 11 tries against the Coast in 1993 including a hat-trick to Bruce Hansen and two each for Hainsworth, Selby and Tim Combs. That team played 15 times during the season, losing 15-9 to Horowhenua in the NPC Div 3 final at Spriggens Park after winning 39-17 in Levin during the qualifying rounds.
Wanganui has won 19 of 25 games against Buller with an average score of 33-13.