Lock Culum Retallick has spent the last 10 months thinking about hitting a major playing milestone for the Bay of Plenty Steamers.
Retallick will play his 50th game in tomorrow's ITM Cup opener with Counties-Manukau in Pukekohe.
The 1.99m-tall second rower should have hit the mark against Northland last year but hewas suspended.
Fifty games had arrived fast for the 26-year-old since he debuted against Hawke's Bay in 2007. He goes into the 2011 campaign with plenty in the tank having been used sparingly at the Chiefs.
"Probably more than anything I'm just looking forward to playing some footie and that's the way it pans out sometimes - there's not much you can do about it except put your best foot forward.
"I felt I'd had a pretty good [2010] season with the Chiefs and was hoping to kick on this year. I was pleased with what happened when I did play, it's just that it wasn't as often as I'd have liked."
Retallick says the provinces with the strongest squads will do well in the ITM Cup.
"It's a short campaign, which is good in some ways and bad in others, but on the bright side us players can rip into it because it'll be over so quick. Teams that have done the work in the last six months with fitness and conditioning should go well and the format might play into our hands because the Bay of Plenty boys have never been good trainers!"
He said in the past injuries had "just killed us".
"The players that have been brought in, the work the union has done getting the finances sound, getting a groundswell of community support behind the Steamers and even getting our own training wicket and gym should add up to success this season."
