Wanganui struggle to make semis
Saturday will see Wanganui play the middle match in a trio of back-toback fixtures against three of the smallest unions, player-wise, from the West Coast of the South Island and the North Island’s East Coast.
It is the first time tthe Butcher Boys have tackled Buller, West Coast and East Coast on successive weekends.
Top of the table West Coast confront second to bottom Steelform Wanganui in a fourth round 2019 Mitre 10 Heartland fixture at Cooks Gardens on Saturday.
Not many years ago Wanganui would start firm favourites to beat the three small Coastal unions by handsome margins. But this season Wanganui is struggling to beat any opposition as results over the past three weeks have clearly indicated, and it is a battle to somehow try to qualify for the Meads Cup semifinals, or perhaps even the second-tier Lochore Cup.
The “Coaster” treble started off on the wrong foot with an agonising 21-22 loss to hosts Buller on Victoria Square in Westport last weekend.
Buller has beaten Wanganui only seven times in 26 games since 1907 and five of those successes have been on home soil.
As was the case against Thames Valley the previous weekend at Cooks Gardens, Wanganui started strongly but ended up with a narrow defeat.
Against the Swamp Foxes the blue-and-blacks led 18-3 but conceded points late in the first spell to reduce the margin to 25-19, conceded gift penalties galore (seven of them converted into points), and the result was a 30-36 defeat at the hands of the reigning Meads Cup champions.
Last Saturday Wanganui had first use of a strong wind and led 14-0 but conceded a try in injury time before the turn-around and again early in the second spell with the lead cut to 14-12.
Although Wanganui rallied to lead 21-12 with a third try, Buller closed to within 2 pts and with 8min remaining Tasman loan goal-kicker James Lash mastered the wind well to kick a winning penalty goal.
For Lash it was sweet revenge after missing several costly shots at goal when Buller lost the Meads Cup final 20-18 at Cooks Gardens in 2016.
It is the third time the Butcher
Boys have lost a Heartland fixture by a single point, following in the footsteps of the 2013 reps who went down locally to both King Country (16-17) and West Coast (24-15).
The 2017 reps pipped Mid Canterbury 24-23 at Ashburton.
After the disaster of losing a record four Heartland games on the trot or the first time — the 2018 semifinal to Thames Valley and now against WairarapaBush, Thames Valley and Buller this season — Wanganui, second to bottom on the points table, badly needs quite a few scalps.
Current unbeaten points leaders West Coast will not be easy this weekend at the half way stage of the qualifying series.
Struggling Ngati Porou East Coast, like Wanganui seeking a first win for the year, is here on Saturday week.
Then Wanganui is off to Oamaru to tackle second-placed North Otago, will defend the Sir Colin Meads Memorial Log against King Country at Cooks Gardens on October 5 and tackle Lochore Cup champions Horowhenua-Kapiti at Levin a week later.
From being the only unbeaten union in qualifying in the country a year ago the Butcher Boys have not won a single championship fixture since the shock 10 point loss to Thames Valley in the 2018 Meads semifinal on Cooks Gardens.
It is rare that the Butcher Boys have been in the position of struggling to qualify for starting places in the semifinals and the coaching staff will be fully tested to come up with a winning squad over the coming five weeks.
Wanganui, however, came back from fourth qualifiers to win the Lochore Cup in 2014 and Meads Cup in 2017.
West Coast’s Form
In contrast to last year’s disastrous campaign, when the union copped a $10,000 NZRU fine for playing an unregistered player in the first four games and ended up ninth in the 12-union championship, Coast is away to a flying start this season
The team is top of the table after three rounds with home wins over King Country (4th in 2018) 56-27 and last weekend against Mid Canterbury (8th last year) 43-41 and away versus Lochore Cup champions Horowhenua-Kapiti (5th last season) 34-12.
West Coast is the top points scoring side this year with 126 points (18 tries) and has conceded 89 pts (13 tries) with Sam Liebezeil and flanker Josh Tomlinson top of the try scoring with three each.
Fullback Todd Struthers has pocketed 31 points with five penalty goals and six conversions while first five Jese Pitman-Joass has two tries, a drop goal and a conversion.
A dozen players have scored tries.
It is the best start in years for Coast whose best effort in 14 years of Heartland rugby has been reaching the semifinals of the 2008 Meads Cup before being eliminated 40-18 by the Butcher Boys at Cooks Gardens.
Wanganui had beaten Coast 52-7 in Greymouth in qualifying and repeated the victory in the semis before going on to win the first of six Meads Cups with a 27-12 victory over Mid Canterbury in the final on Cooks Gardens to round of an unbeaten season.
West Coast has twice played in the Lochore Cup final, losing 21-13 to North Otago in 2009 and 24-14 to Mid Canterbury at Methven in 2017.
The team’s highest Heartland placings have been fourth in 2008 and sixth in 2017.
Coast has only beaten Wanganui twice in 10 visits — 21-5 in a 1995 NPC Div 3 game and 25-24 in a 2013 Heartland match. The team’s other success was 23-17 at Greymouth in 2014 with the Butcher Boys going on to beat North Otago 14-12 away in the Lochore Cup final..
Wanganui has beaten Coast 17
times in 20 clashes since 1985, scoring 769 points and conceding 274 with an average score of 38-19.
Last year Wanganui won 33-21 at Rugby Park (now John Sturgeon Park) after being held to 14-all at halftime, Dane Whale scoring a brace of tries and Craig Clare collecting 13 points (a try and four conversions).
Wanganui won by five tries to three against a Coast side that fielded a few powerful forwards.
West Coast provided exTaranaki mid field back Sione Holani and hooker Troy Tauwhare to the NZ Heartland side that recently played Manu Samoa in Auckland.
Although Wanganui’s record this year is very poor, the Butcher Boys have shown signs of finally playing to their potential and breaking a record losing streak.
The team has been sitting on 99 Heartland victories for four matches so far.
The curtain-raiser is an RDO Shield game between the Wanganui Toyota Development team and Wairarapa-Bush.