Bigger challenge ahead for Poverty Bay

Well-earned place in starting 15: Poverty Bay prop Lance Dickson makes a run with support following by lock Adriaan Brits against Hawke's Bay Saracens in a pre-season game this year. Dickson has earned his way into the starting front row against table toppers South Canterbury tomorrow. Picture by Paul Rickard

From tough to even tougher — Poverty Bay go from spirited defeat against Whanganui in Gisborne to a face-off with Heartland Championship leaders South Canterbury in Waimate tomorrow.

The task ahead of Civil Project Solutions Poverty Bay Wekas is huge, but they take with them the belief gained from staying within eight points of Whanganui, who beat them by 50 last season.

South Canterbury have not lost a game this season. They beat Wairarapa Bush 73-19 in Masterton and Whanganui 30-24.

The Wekas have made changes to the line-up that started the 32-24 loss to Whanganui.

Prop Lance Dickson comes into the fold.

“He hasn't missed a training session and has been putting in the extras, so he deserves his shot in the starting line-up this weekend,” Wekas head coach Miah Nikora said.

Prop Jordan McFarlane holds his place in the front row. Tamanui Hill will make his first appearance in the starting line-up since he took a head injury during the game against the Hawke's Bay Saracens at the Rectory. He will start at No.8 in place of Jesse Kapene.

Also making his way into the starting 15 after a week away is Ted Walters, at centre.

Ethine Reeves comes in at fullback after making an impression on the coaching staff when he was called up from the development team to the Wekas squad that took on Whanganui.

Ngatapa's Campbell Chrisp will suit up for the Wekas for the first time this season.

“It's good to have Campbell back in,” Nikora said.

“We have had a few guys out with injuries and unavailability, so it is great to be able to call on someone like Campbell, with 50-plus games for Poverty Bay. It's nice to have that coming off the bench for us.

“Jesse (Kapene) and Morgan Reedy were unavailable this weekend so we have shuffled the pack a bit.”

Nikora said South Canterbury would bring a lot of strike power across the whole field.

“It's another big one for us,” he said.

“They're top of the table, five from five and champions from last year.

“So the onus is on us, in our first one-on-one tackles, to stop their momentum and stop them from getting their game going.

“In terms of attack, we just want to keep improving from what we did last weekend. We did a lot of good stuff and now it's just fine-tuning the detail around that.”

He said the Bay took a lot of belief from last weekend's game against Whanganui and that would drive them against the toughest team in the championship.

“People might be writing us off but the guys we have, have that belief and we believe we can go down there and give them a shock,” Nikora said.

The game, at Manchester Park, will start at 2.30pm and will be streamed live. Check the Poverty Bay Rugby Football Union Facebook page for more details.