“At some stage, and pretty soon, we’re going to need to take points off the teams above us”
Poole said that apart from Zane Boyle (blindside flanker), who has “a touch of the flu” and may miss this weekend’s game, and halfback Willie Haenga, ruled out with work commitments, coaches Jamie Hutana and Scotty Leighton would field a similar team to the side who beat Tapuae.
“Our biggest problem at the start of the season was injuries to our front-rowers but we’ve got Isi Pofele, Jody Tuhaka and Blanco Maka likely to start, and cover with Tamanui Hill off the bench.
“David Joll has come back to help, and he’s put his hand up if we need a front-rower. It’s great to have experienced players and good club men Jared Phelps (lock) and David back playing.”
If Boyle, who has been converted from a winger to a No.6, fails to recover from the flu, HSOB have a ready-made replacement in Viliami Kavai.
Along with openside flanker Stefan Destounis and No.8 Kupu Lloyd, that gives HSOB a livewire loose trio.
Larsawn Ngatapa coach Sione Ngatu is likely to start at loosehead prop tomorrow, with Semisi Akana moving to lock after Scott Brodie was taken to hospital with concussion suffered in last week’s loss to YMP.
As well as being without Brodie, Ngatapa will not have the Chrisp brothers, Campbell (prop, injured) and Alex (blindside, injured), hooker Ihaia Kerr (injured), halfback and skipper Chris Richardson (injured), second five-eighth Anthony Karauria (unavailable) and centre Oka Sanerivi (unavailable).
“We’ve still got a good backline but we’ve got to get the ball to them,” assistant coach David McDonald said.
“We just didn’t get our hands on the ball last week, and when we did we didn’t look after it well enough.”
ENTERPRISE Cars OBM and East Coast Farm Vets YMP are also on the road tomorrow, both heading to Wairoa.
OBM play Roseland Tavern Tapuae and YMP take on Charteris Choppers Athletic.
OBM had the bye last week and coach Tom Solomon will be looking for his side to consolidate fourth spot with a win . . . and preferably a bonus-point victory to keep them ahead of HSOB, should the old students defeat Ngatapa.
Tapuae should be more competitive at home than they were last week at the Oval, when the body was willing but the technique was lacking. But anything other than a convincing win to OBM would open the door for HSOB.
Likewise, YMP will be targeting a bonus-point win against their former coach Jimmy Whaitiri.
Like Tapuae, Athletic play better at home and showed their courage and skill last week at Te Karaka, holding competition leaders GT Shearing Waikohu to 12-3 at halftime before losing 46-8.
But if YMP play anything like they did last week, when they blew Ngatapa off the park, Athletic are in for a torrid 80 minutes.
“That was our best performance of the season but we want to improve on certain little aspects that we all feel we can improve on,” YMP coach Steve Smith said.
The platform was set by a magnificent effort from numbers 1 to 8, and the backs ran the ball from all over the pitch.
On a day when the player-of-the-day award went to the team, skipper and second-five Reihana Wyllie had a stormer.
Smith has given Brian Whaitiri-White an extended run in the No.10 jersey and it is a decision that has paid off.
The slightly built Whaitiri-White, one of the side’s leading players when it comes to tackling, is growing in confidence with every outing. He did not get on the scoresheet last week but had a hand in four of the five tries. He also kicked four conversions and two penalties.
