Taradale rugby lock Angelo Mufana on the job as a carpenter for Brookes Builders. Photo/Paul Taylor
It has never been Taradale Rugby and Sports lock Angelo Mufana's style to be cautious.
A fifth season premier player with the club, Mufana, has regularly conceded 10kg to opposing second rowers over the years but still outplayed them more often than not.
Despite having a season off following knee reconstruction surgery in April last year there was nothing cautious about Mufana's play during his team's 95-0 drubbing of Northfuels Central at the Tareha Recreational Reserve in Saturday's first round of Hawke's Bay's Tui Nash Cup competition.
Read more: Rugby: Mighty Maroons benefit from better pre-season
The carpenter with Brookes Builders was a popular selection as the first weekly winner in the tussle to become the 2018 recipient of the McDonald's-Hawke's Bay Today's Club Rugby Player of the Year award. And as he has done so often over the years, Mufana, 25, was quick to pass the kudos on.
"I just had to jump. We've got an outstanding lock in Lui Luamanu who calls the lineouts. Our new prop Joe Apikotoa has plenty of good ideas for lineouts and dummy runners ... they are both ex-Wellington Lions players so I suppose we have a slight advantage," Mufana said.
"We get really good feedback from them which is awesome. All the talk doesn't have to come from the coaches."
What about the knee and the rest of Mufana's body?
"The knee is never going to be 100 per cent ... I just have to keep building on it. Overall the body is 90-95 per cent as I played in two of our three pre-season games."
Originally from New Caledonia, Mufana came to New Zealand to complete his final three years of secondary schooling at Lindisfarne College. Magpies lock Tom Parsons was two years ahead of him and Parsons brother and fellow lock Ben Parsons was a year behind.
"It was good to play against them on Saturday and it's good Tom is back in the Bay from Manawatu as he will bring plenty of mongrel to the Magpies. That score on Saturday does not reflect the game ... Central were missing three or four of their starters."
A member of the Hawke's Bay under-20s team in 2012-13, Mufana, was in the Hawke's Bay Saracens in 2016. Spectators at Saturday's match suggested he was on track for Saracens selection again but Mufana refused to look that far ahead.
"I'm just taking things one game at a time and I want to help the club out as much as I can. If it happens we will see what happens ... hopefully I don't get injured."
Mufana pointed out the Taradale team is adopting a similar approach.
"We're a new team with a new culture in rebuilding mode. We haven't set any goals ... we're just taking things one game at a time and trying to get better and better."
All of this weekend's Nash Cup round two fixtures will be played on Friday. Tanalised Napier Pirate Rugby and Sports will host Taradale Rugby and Sports at Tamatea Park at 1pm and all other games will start at 3pm.
They will see Altherm Window Systems Napier Technical host defending champions WIT Napier Old Boys Marist at Whitmore Park, MAC host Progressive Meats Havelock North at Flaxmere Park, Auto Super Shoppe Hastings Rugby and Sports host K9 Pet Foods Clive at Elwood Park and Jarks Tamatea host Northfuels Central at the Hawke's Bay Regional Sports Park.
Hawke's Bay Rugby Football Union CEO Jay Campbell is rapt McDonalds have jumped on board one of the union's grassroots projects for a third consecutive year. McDonalds will supply prizes for the weekly award winners as well as the overall winner.
Last year's club rugby MVP, NOBM loosie Matt Gardner, made the Magpies Mitre 10 Cup squad for the second consecutive but again missed out on game time after breaking his arm in a pre-season fixture.
Best & fairest
■ Taradale v Central: 3, Angelo Mufana (Taradale); 2, Joe Apikotoa (Taradale); 1, Nathan Ramsay (Taradale).
■ Hastings Rugby and Sports v Napier Technical: 3, Aleki Vuki (Hastings); 2, Mason Emerson (Hastings); 1, Junior Saufoi (Tech).
■ NOBM v Pirate: 3, Liam Edwards (NOBM); 2, Sean Skeet (NOBM); 1, Sam Weber (NOBM).
■ Havelock North v Clive: 3, William McGoon (Havelock North); 2, Mikey Vuicakau (Havelock North); 1, Jacob Henry (Clive).
■ MAC v Tamatea: 3, Fa'alemiga Selesele (MAC); 2, Vai Kereti (MAC); 1, Everard Reid (Tamatea).