Rugby: Slingsby eyes better times for Central

It's not easy for a rugby loosie to switch to hooker, particularly at premier club level.

But Central blindside flanker Warwick Slingsby has done it regularly for the past two seasons; last year when 2012 New Zealand under-20s rake Rhys Marshall was on international duty, and this season when injuries have forced it.

Slingsby, 31, did it again last weekend and produced a player-of-the-match performance as his Waipukurau-based team recorded their first win of the season with a 43-10 drubbing of Tamatea at Bill Mathewson Park, Hastings. So it was an appropriate reward when Slingsby became the 16th winner in the Tui-Hawke's Bay Today Club Player of the Year award.

"We've been a bit short in a few key positions this season. We're really down on locks but have got plenty of backs. Every club experiences these times ... it's just taken us a little longer to get out of it because the employment opportunities down here aren't the same as they used to be," Slingsby said.

The former Hawke's Bay under-20s and under-19s representative who spent a couple of seasons in the United Kingdom playing for the Kirkby Lonsdale club, pointed out his team boasts several young players and he can see the team experiencing better times within a season or two once these youngsters have become more familiar with the standards required at premier level.

A father of two toddlers, aged 3 and 18 months, Slingsby has an extra incentive to stick with the club too.

"I'm on 180 premier games at the moment ... it would be good to reach 200," he said.

With their win against Tamatea, Central are equal on points with Tamatea at the bottom of the points table.

"Like Tamatea, we don't want to be in the situation of playing the promotion-relegation game at the end of the season. We're going up to Taradale with the aim of getting some more points this weekend," Slingsby said.

An interesting aspect of the game will be the likely matchup between the McIntyre brothers out wide; Daniel, who has scored nine tries for Central, and Tommy, who has scored four for Taradale this season.

A keen hunter and fisherman when time allows, Slingsby, also runs his own business Slingsby Spreaders.

January to May is his busiest time of the year and he struggled to make Central's pre-season games as well as trainings during the Nash Cup round.

"That made it tough for me to command a starting spot but work pays the bills."

Slingsby regards former Magpies captains Michael Johnson and Mutu Ngarimu as the toughest loosies he has marked in the competition.

Performances similar to what this pair used to produce at club level from Slingsby and his teammates will be a must during the next fortnight if they are to avoid the dreaded promotion-relegation game.