Horowhenua-Kāpiti rugby coach Chris Wilton has been allowed the luxury of a trial match tomorrow night at Levin Domain as he starts to assemble a squad for Heartland campaign.
Wilton said he was impressed by the passion of players within the province to wear the red, white and blue, and their willingness to jump at the chance to trial showed a real desire for players to represent their province and be involved in a Heartland campaign.
"We've had really good buy-in from the clubs and coaches, and to have that much buy-in for a heartland team is a really encouraging thing," he said.
Holding trials was commonplace in rugby decades ago, with the All Black trials always keenly contested, but in recent times they were a rarity.
Wilston conceded that for many years the Horowhenua-Kāpiti side would warm up with a pre-season match to experiment with combinations.