Baywide club rugby heating up

DIRECT RUNNING: Mount Maunganui's Pauliasi Ha'unga takes on two Rangataua defenders in last week's opening round. PHOTO: FILE

The new club rugby season gets serious tomorrow.

Tomorrow the opening round of the Division 1 grade begins with a local derby between home team Judea and arch rivals for promotion Rangiuru while the Premier and Development sides will have all learned plenty of lessons after last week's opening round.

The hot summer weather that greeted the players last week has been replaced by cooler temperatures and the prospect of plenty of rain which tends to give the winter codes a sense of reality.

Judea and Rangiuru have plenty of close battles in recent years with both clubs desperately keen to step up to the top grade. That quest starts tomorrow at Maharaia Winiata Memorial Park in Judea.

One of the intriguing Premier match-ups is at Greerton Park where home side Greerton Marist host Rotorua's Whakarewarewa.

Greerton were ambushed early by a fired-up Te Puke Sports side last week and effectively were out of the game by halftime. Their new look squad was missing several key players who are back tomorrow but new coach Brendon Brill found some positives out of the 54-12 defeat.

"It was probably the best game for us to actually have in the first round to be fair," he said.

"We always know they are strong and well-drilled and a team that try to put you out of the game early in the first half, which is exactly what they did.

"Their ability at the breakdown was certainly more dominant than ours. We came back into the game in the second half but it was well gone by then."

Brill has joined forces with Bay of Plenty under-18 coach Brendon Philips at Greerton Marist and returns home to the club where he played right through the ranks from barefoot days to Premiers.

He knows Whakarewarewa are always a stern challenge. They began well by defeating Te Puna Sports 24-20 at home last week.

"We have changes to the team tomorrow so hopefully those changes will result in a better outcome," Brill said.

"Whaka are very, very hard up front and have some amazing direction from Steamers first-five Kelly Haimona. They will be big and they will be well-drilled. They beat Te Puna which was a good result for them."

Defending champions Rangataua Sports and Tauranga Sports meet at Tauranga Domain in a much anticipated clash with both Baywide heavyweights off to winning starts last week. Rangataua beat Mount Maunganui Sports 11-3 in an arm wrestle at home while Tauranga defeated Arataki Sports away by 28-16.

Mount Maunganui and Te Puke meet at Blake Park, Te Puna are home to Rotoiti, Arataki travel away to Whakatane Marist and Poroporo host Paroa.

This is the second year of the revised Baywide system introduced by Bay of Plenty Rugby.
The 12-team Premier and 12-team Division One grades in the first round will split into three groups of eight to fight out the championship round in Premier 1, Premier 2 and Division 1 grades.

Premier and Premier Development
Premier kick-off 2.45pm, Premier Development 1pm
Tauranga Sports v Rangataua at Tauranga Domain
Greerton Marist v Whakarewarewa at Greerton Park
Mount Maunganui v Te Puke Sports at Blake Park
Te Puna v Rotoiti at Maramatanga Park
Poroporo v Paroa at Poroporo Park
Whakatane Marist v Arataki at Rugby Park

Baywide Division 1
Division 1 kick-off 2.45pm
Ruatoki v Papamoa at Tuhoe Park
Te Teko v Waimana at Dunderdale Park
Marist St Michael's v Waikite at Marist Park
Kahukura v Ngongotaha at Kuirau Park
Katikati v Opotiki at Moore Park
Judea v Rangiuru at Maharaia Winiata Memorial Park