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.”