Bay out to keep up the good work

VERSATILE: Poverty Bay captain Adrian Wyrill will play at blindside flanker tomorrow, which means he will have played all three loose forward positions in the Bay’s first three games this year. Picture by Paul Rickard

RUGBY

Poverty Bay will be looking to take their form from last weekend into their clash with Wairarapa Bush tomorrow.

The game, to be played at Tremain Field in Napier, will be a good test for the Civil Project Solutions Poverty Bay team.

Last year Wairarapa Bush came third in the Heartland Championship, beating Poverty Bay in Masterton 36-31 in a close game.

Poverty Bay head coach Tom Cairns said they were disappointed with the result last year. He thought the Bay were on the receiving end of a couple of tough calls over disallowed tries.

He expects another challenging game tomorrow and believes the set piece will be a crucial factor.

“We have to work hard on lineout,” he said.

“They have a couple of really tall guys . . . we’ve been working on it this week.”

This year Poverty Bay have a policy of selecting only players who were involved in local regional club rugby.

The decision has created a team with phenomenal on-field chemistry. The players are familiar with each other, and it’s made for some great combinations between key playmakers.

Poverty Bay will be without fullback Andrew Tauatevalu this week; he will likely miss several games after a heavy knock to the head which left him unconscious early in last week’s Coast game.

It’s led to a new-look backline. Kelvin Smith shuffles from first five-eighth to fullback, and Paoraian Manuel-Harman will take his place in the 10 jersey.

Louis Devery is starting this weekend at second five-eighth, after being unavailable for the first two games of the representative season. That push Tane McGuire out to centre.

Jack Lewis and Scott McKinley will be on the wings, with Matt Raleigh on the bench. Tione Hubbard and Te Peehi Fairlie were not named in the 22 for tomorrow’s game.

The forwards have also had some shuffling around. Captain Adrian Wyrill moves from No.8 to blindside flanker, which means he will have played all three loose forward positions in the Bay’s first three games.

Sam McDell and Matekairoa McGuire will get their first caps of the season starting in lock and hooker respectively.

Cairns said that with no Heartland competition this year, Poverty Bay were committed to giving game time in the scarlet jersey to as many deserving players as they could.

With their strategy of development and “giving a couple of the guys who have worked hard a crack”, they were trusting the depth of the wider squad.

The team improved substantially between their first two games, and Cairns said he was looking for similar levels of refinement again this week.

“The idea is all about improvement. It was a big step up last week from the first week . . . consistency is key.

“They’ve got some big forwards and strength from the bench . . . we’re going to have to work hard at the breakdown area.”

It will be a long day for Poverty Bay. They will be travelling by bus to Napier and back on the same day, but Cairns said it’s what they had to do to get games in a Covid-affected season of rugby.

Poverty Bay Rugby Football Union chief executive Josh Willoughby said the game would be live-streamed. They were still working through details and were unsure where the video would be hosted, but would share the stream on to their Facebook page.

At stake in the game is the Jeremy David Memorial Trophy, in memory of a former High School Old Boys midfield back who played representative rugby for the Bay and the Bush.