How do you stop South Canterbury?

Ngāti Porou East Coast prop Hakarangi Tichborne takes a ‘direct approach’ when faced with the Poverty Bay defence during a Heartland match this season. East Coast take on undefeated, back-to-back Meads Cup champions South Canterbury this weekend. Live coverage of the match will be on SkySport 2 from 3pm, after the first Meads Cup semifinal match between Thames Valley and Whanganui from 1pm. Poverty Bay play North Otago on Saturday in the first semifinal for the Lochore Cup.Picture by Paul Rickard

Ngāti Porou East Coast must scale the heights of Heartland rugby if they are to win their Meads Cup semifinal in the South Island tomorrow.

They face South Canterbury, the reigning champions, who have won 29 games on the trot.

The Kahu Tamatea-coached Coast will play the 1 v 4 semifinal at Pleasant Point Domain, 10 minutes’ drive northwest of Timaru.

South Canterbury have won 15 of the 18 clashes between the unions since 1986, and have prevailed in their past 10 clashes with the Kaupoi. The Coast’s last win in the fixture, 18-6, came on October 9, 1999, at Enterprise Cars Whakarua Park in Ruatōria. That season, New Zealand Rugby Coach of the Year Joe McClutchie guided the Coast to the first of two consecutive third-division titles.

The Sky Blues won the Lochore Cup in 2022. To beat South Canterbury at home in a must-win situation and end the Southerners’ winning streak would be to make more rugby history.

Coast captain and halfback Sam Parkes says his side will be direct.

“That approach suits us best,” he said.

“Against South Canterbury, teams need to be able to play for 80, if not 90 minutes, as South Canterbury can turn the heat on whenever they want.”

The Coast scrummage well, and with the likes of vice-captain and No.8 Mitch Crosswell, lock Richie Green and blindside flanker Fafili Levave, a former Samoan international, they have good lineout options.

Hooker Joe Royal — like Crosswell, a Māori All Black — has scored five tries in seven Heartland appearances this year. The experience and muscle of the Sky Blues up front will enable them to hold their own at set-piece.

South Canterbury will be steered around the field by skipper and first five-eighth Will Wright, who has amassed 453 points in his 80 games for the province.

His four conversions and penalty goal for 11 points made the difference between his top-of-the-table team and the eighth-placed Civil Project Solutions Poverty Bay Weka, in their 41-31 escape from Paddy’s Park, Patutahi.

“It’s going to be tough against the Coast — they’ve had a good season,” said Wright, a member of the last five Heartland 15 selections.

“Some of their forwards have experience at higher levels, and that makes them very dangerous. They also have backs who can score from anywhere. We need to focus on what we do well, build over phases, make them tackle our big boys. Hopefully, space will open up.”

The Sky Blues have Royal, loosehead prop Hakarangi Tichborne and reserve rake Jorian Tangaere — the man who scored against then-as-now Ranfurly Shield holders Hawke’s Bay two years ago — as the point of the sword on lineout drives. Royal scored the Coast’s last try against South Canterbury — their only five-pointer in the sides’ 18th meeting.

Yet the home team also have heavy artillery.

In his 41st appearance for South Canterbury, No.8 Siu Kakala — now the union’s leading try-scorer in a season with 14 — is a titan that NPEC must stop. That Kakala also gave two try-assists to fullback Linueli Simote in his Round 8 hat-trick against the Bay should also not be lost on the Coast.

Both teams relish physical play and South Canterbury — like Whanganui, who await the Thames Valley Swamp Foxes at Cooks Gardens in 2 v 3 clash — set a standard for generating momentum through strong carries.

Yet even as Wright would see his crew batter and wear the Sky Blues down, he is aware of the threat that Parkes poses around the fringes of rucks and mauls, and that fullback Renata Roberts-Te Nana presents given space.

Head coach Nigel Walsh’s South Canterbury have not lost a Heartland Championship game since losing to West Coast 27-24 at Alpine Energy Stadium (next year to revert to its original name, Fraser Park), Timaru, on October 12, 2019.

That year they won the Lochore Cup. Covid-19 forced the cancellation of the championship in 2020 and South Canterbury go into Saturday’s knockout fixture on the back of a sobering but tremendously valuable stoush away from home.

The Coast have won five games and lost three this season. They are coming off a 31-26 loss to the Valley at Rugby Park in Waihi. The Kaupoi trailed the Swamp Foxes 19-7 at halftime last Saturday, and must start well so as not to have to battle either scoreboard or clock this weekend.

Handling errors at their own end will cost them points; such errors at the other end will also cost them points. First-five Terangi Fraser will also need to bring his best pair of kicking boots and land every shot at goal he takes.

South Canterbury beat the Coast 57-5 at Raukapuka Domain in Geraldine on October 8 last year to end round-robin play, with the Green and Blacks making their seventh defence of the Allan “Smiley” Haua Memorial Trophy. Kakala got eight tries in that Heartland Championship campaign, which ended with a 76-9 hammering of King Country in 1 v 4 and a 47-36 win in the 2022 Meads Cup final.

Both the semifinal and final were played at Pleasant Point, where tomorrow showers, a south-easterly breeze and high temperature of 11 degrees are expected.

Kick-off in the 1 v 4 semifinal, under 33-year-old referee Nick Hogan (Hawke’s Bay, 45 first-class games), AR1 George Haswell (Canterbury, 18FC) and AR2 Chris Paul (South Canterbury, 5FC) at Pleasant Point Domain, is set for 3.05pm.

NGATI POROU EAST COAST KAUPOI: Hakarangi Tichborne, Joseph Royal, Perrin Manuel, Richard Green, Hoani Te Moana, Faifili Levave, Will Bolingford, Mitchell Crosswell (vice-captain), Sam Parkes (captain) Terangi Fraser, Tevita Nabura, Tutere Waenga, Apirana Pewhairangi, Taane Paki, Renata Roberts-Te Nana.

Reserves: Jorian Tangaere, Jody Tuhaka, Semisi Akana, Riki Waitoa, Rico Te Kani, Josh Dearden, Paora Mullany, Verdon Bartlett.

.

SOUTH CANTERBURY: Vaka Taelega, Conor Anderson, Tokomaata Fakatava, Anthony Amato, Tevita Ahokovi, Loni Toumohuni, Finlay Joyce, Siu Kakala, Fa’alele Iosua, William Wright (c), Kalavini Leatigaga, Miles Medlicott, Zach McKay, Clarence Moli, Linueli Simote. Reserves: Junior Faavae, Graison Dale, Casey Garrett, Solomone Lavaka, Paula Moli, Steve Phillips, Zac Saunders, Sireli Buliruarua.