Bay at full strength for Valley game,Mangapapa big winners

I THOUGHT WE CAME HERE TO PLAY FOOTY? Thames Valley under-18 rugby players lend a hand with repairs to the John Heikell Stand ahead of tonight’s match against their Poverty Bay counterparts. Picture by Paul Rickard

POVERTY Bay under-18 players get another chance to impress coach Jamie Hutana when they play Thames Valley at Rugby Park at 6pm tonight.

The Bay lost 33-5 to Wellington Samoa in the opening game of their Hurricanes Colts campaign in Gisborne at the weekend.

“We had a few boys pull out before Saturday’s game but it’s all hands on deck for this one,” said Hutana, who guided High School Old Boys to a Lee Bros Shield title in his first season as a premier club coach.

“I promised to play all the boys in the first two games so we can pick a squad to travel away for Saturday’s match against Wanganui, which will be the curtainraiser to the Heartland clash.

“We’re all looking forward to the challenge of three games in a week.”

Thames Valley are not in the Hurricanes region but Poverty Bay assistant Heartland coach Dwayne Russell said that he, Thames Valley rugby development officer (RDO) Bill Cooksley and Ngati Porou East Coast RDO Troy Para talked at the national RDO conference about the possibility of the visit.

“They were keen to do a tour of Gisborne and the East Coast,” Russell said.

“We agreed it would be a great start to a new relationship.

“Thames Valley wanted to contribute to our community and Bill asked us if we would like his lads to assist in any jobs or work we felt needed doing.

“As the seats at Rugby Park needed some work, the team reinstalled them and had to problem-solve and work together as a team within their leadership group.

“Thames Valley will be hard to beat. They beat Wanganui but our boys will be out to improve after losing to Wellington Samoa, who won the Hurricanes u18 competition last year.”