Rugby: Edmonds first to admit he didn't fire earlier on

I was suffering the effects of rotavirus which I had caught off my 6-month-old son Benson." Brendon Edmonds, Magpies prop

Hawke's bay Magpies rugby prop Brendon Edmonds will be among the first to admit he hasn't fired as he should this season.

"No excuses but it has been a long year for me. It has been new for me playing all that rugby," Edmonds said, referring to his time with the Super Rugby title-winning Highlanders team and then the Maori All Blacks before linking up with the Magpies.

Fans were questioning his fatigue levels early in the successful September 24 Ranfurly Shield defence against Auckland when he appeared to be almost stumbling from one breakdown to the next and didn't have his usual urgency in general play with just three carries and one tackle. One text suggested Edmonds, 24, had still been involved with belated celebrations in the wake of his Super Rugby success but this wasn't the case at all ... he had been vomiting and had heavy bouts of diarrhoea for 24 hours before the game.

"I was suffering the effects of rotavirus which I had caught off my 6-month-old son Benson. We had no other options, I just had to play as good as I could," he recalled.

"I'm back to full health now. It's time to be a bit selfish, play my game, look after myself and hopefully the rest of the team will feed off that," Edmonds said after the Magpies' final training session before tomorrow's ITM Cup Championship semifinal against the Bay of Plenty Steamers at Napier's McLean Park.

He won't be short of motivational ammunition. Magpies head coach Craig Philpott had a one-on-one with Edmonds this week and told him he wanted to see his "mongrel dog" style return.

"Now is the time in the season when great players have great games," Philpott reminded Edmonds.

Having experienced semifinals and finals with the Magpies as well as at Super level, Edmonds said the Magpies must treat tomorrow's clash like any other game.

"While we must be eager to earn another week of training starting on Monday we must keep cool heads at all times. A few things didn't pan out for us in last week's loss to Waikato but we showed our belief in each other during the final 10-12 minutes ... it was quite scary to watch from the sideline after I had been subbed."

Edmonds pointed out the Magpies learned in their 23-17 win against the Steamers last month how much they like to use their forwards.

"They use their forwards to get good front-foot ball. It's important we shut them down early so they get no ball and no gain line."

The fact Philpott didn't want his team for the match published until tomorrow is an indication of the respect he has for the Steamers. Outside back Zac Guildford is unavailable for personal reasons and flanker Tony Lamborn will miss the semifinal with a shoulder injury.

Substitute prop Mark Braidwood, who also has a shoulder injury, is likely to be replaced by Jason Long, and Jonathan Ruru is expected to be the substitute halfback following Ellery Wilson's knee injury.

Philpott said his troops trained well this week.

"Last week [in the 36-30 loss to Waikato] we created a lot of opportunities but didn't finish off because of poor options.

"We tried the offload when we should have gone to ground ... our decision-making was poor."

Steamers head coach Clayton McMillan will also wait until later today before releasing his team. It will include former Magpies utility back Tino Nemani, who played a prominent role in their competitive challenge for the Ranfurly Shield last month.

On Tuesday night Nemani collected the Players Player and Steamers Player of the Year awards at the Bay of Plenty union's prizegiving.