Mana Otai.
POVERTY Bay coach Mana Otai is excited at player depth and coaching potential as he looks to produce a team as competitive as possible by the start of the Heartland Championship.
A 35-man squad was finalised after the Lee Bros Shield premier club competition final on Saturday.
“Both teams (High School Old Boys and Waikohu) displayed passion and executed great rugby skills, and showed why they were worthy finalists,” Otai said.
“We have been looking for consistent performers and we saw many of them in that final. I saw a huge improvement both in the quality of play and in the quality of certain players from the first day of the season through to that match.”
The final confirmed the representative players he was looking for.
“But there were also a couple who played themselves into the squad.
“High School Old Boys winger George Halley was one of them. His work-rate was huge and he showed his versatility when finishing the match at halfback.
“Tawhao Stewart, in the Waikohu centres, was another. He played on the wing and showed speed and had plenty of guts and determination on defence.”
Otai said when he first came to look over the club teams there were areas of concern — the front-row, first five-eighth and outright speed on the wings.
“Now I feel we have a good mixture of experience and youth in our front-row forwards.
“We have picked two guys for the first five position (OBM’s Jake Holmes and Waikohu’s Kelvin Smith) and there are three others who would easily slot in there.
“Speed-wise, I am now happy with what we have seen, with the likes of George Halley, Ngatapa’s Karl Macpherson and Ratu Daurua — the top try-scorer from 2016 — back from Whakatane Marist.”
Otai will be assisted by Poverty Bay Rugby Football Union development manager Dwayne Russell, with Steve Smith manager and Tuterangi Nepe-Apatu strength and conditioning coach.
Otai said they picked a 35-man squad “as we don’t have a development team and it will take 35 committed players to do well in the Heartland competition”.
“Everyone has an equal opportunity to stake a claim for a place in the 22 to take the field every week during the championship.
“Nothing is guaranteed. Everyone is on a level playing field. They all have to take their opportunities on and off the field as we build towards our first competition game.
“It’s all about being ready for that first game. We have to be very competitive up front and out wide, and right from the start of the championship.”
He and Russell were “very happy” with the group of players selected.
“We are excited to have seen there is player depth in the region. We are also excited about the potential to do some coaching — to continue raising player skill sets.”
The squad includes loan players Isaia Vuki and Daurua back from last year, 2016 captain Everard Reid, who has returned from overseas, and Isaiah Leach, last year’s NZ Heartland under-19 captain who has returned to the union as an origin player after playing club rugby in Tasman.
The squad had its first training run last night at Rugby Park.
“We have been training with a wider squad every second Wednesday for a while and last night we built on what we got from the Ngati Porou East Coast game (at Queen’s Birthday Weekend, which Poverty Bay won 38-23.
The Bay have pre-season games against Wairarapa Bush for the Jeremy David Cup on August 12 at Rugby Park and Hawke’s Bay Saracens the following weekend. They open the championship with an away game against Mid Canterbury on August 26.
Poverty Bay were seventh on the table last year and were eliminated by King Country in the semifinals of the Lochore Cup playoffs for fifth-to-eight-placed teams.