Poverty Bay Wekas look to regroup with home game

Supporting the Breast Cancer Foundation: Deb Quilter, Moses Christie, Mario Counsell, Doug and Parker Jones, Kelvin Smith are displaying the ‘pink' strip that the Poverty Bay Wekas will be wearing tomorrow. The strip will be presented to each player by women significant in their lives. Each strip will then be auctioned off after the game with proceeds going to the Breast Cancer Foundation.

A home game might be just what the doctor ordered.

The Civil Project Solutions Poverty Bay Wekas take on the Thames Valley Swamp Foxes in Round 7 of the Bunnings Heartland Championship at Rugby Park at 2.30pm tomorrow.

The Wekas will look to regroup after their disappointing 60-7 loss to table-toppers South Canterbury in Waimate last weekend.

Thames Valley are having a strong season. They are third on the table, having suffered only one loss at the hands of South Canterbury, 23-17, in the opening round.

In the only change to the forward pack, Morgan Reedy — on loan from Taranaki — makes a return in place of Fletcher Scammel.

Jesse Kapene comes back into the game-day squad and will wear the No.20 jersey.

Prop Jarryd Broughton, who broke a collarbone playing for Waikohu against YMP in the club final, will make his season debut for the rep team, running on from the bench.

Prop Toru Noanoa is unavailable this weekend.

In the backline, Hunter Mokomoko — on loan from Bay of Plenty — will be on the left wing.

Second five-eighth will be Jacob Leaf, with Mitchell Purvis set to make an impact from the bench.

Led by Dan Law and Kelvin Smith, the Wekas will be keen to add to their solitary win in this season's competition — 30-26 against Wairarapa Bush in Round 2.

Head coach Miah Nikora said it wasn't easy taking the loss last weekend but the team have built well over the week.

“The focus this week has been around our discipline,” he said.

“Looking at last weekend, those penalties against us meant we couldn't get our game going, particularly in the first half, then three yellow cards in the second half — you're never going to get far like that, especially against quality teams like South Canterbury.”

Nikora said the Bay didn't need to change too much in their game but he put emphasis on discipline.

“Another message we've put through this week is that we can only control what we control.

“Especially in our attack game, if our discipline is good and we are not coughing up easy possession to the opposition, then we can get some ball, get some territory. We have shown that if we get good position on the field, we can play.”

Homework on Thames Valley showed Nikora that the Wekas could compete against top-four teams.

“We had a good look at Thames Valley. They're probably not as big across the board as South Canterbury or Whanganui but they (Thames Valley) play the game with real speed and momentum and are a very skilful team.”

The Wekas will be wearing a one-off pink strip this weekend to celebrate the importance of women.

Each player's partner, wife or mother will present the strip before the game. After the game, the strips will be auctioned off, with proceeds going to the Breast Cancer Foundation.

The Union will be hoping for as much support as Poverty Bay can get. Crowd numbers to home games have been disapointing, not helped by the weather.