Emerging out of the Blue

ITM Cup Tipping: P17Northland rugby's secret weapon is secret no longer after Justin 'Gus' Collins was named on the bench for Saturday's match against Waikato.
Collins' surprise selection was timely after Northland's loose forward stocks took a battering last week against Counties-Manukau.
Many thought the Kamo stalwart had made his last appearance in the Cambridge Blue after being forced out of the professional game, playing for the Blues almost 18 months ago, with a serious concussion.
"At the start of the year I wasn't planning on playing, I was actually looking forward to watching the games with a beer in my hand from this outstanding new stadium - and I have done a couple of times - but now I'm getting the chance to play again, I'm actually getting quite excited about it," Collins said.
The veteran of more than 100 games for Northland decided that after getting through a club rugby season unscathed, with a little extra training he might be an ace up Taniwha coach Bryce Woodward's sleeve.
"Northland got a lot of injuries in the pack toward the end of last season and that affected them a lot so I thought after the club season had gone pretty well that I could act as a back-up for the team in case I was needed," he said.
He has trained with the side for six or eight weeks in "the background" learning lineout calls and scrum moves and now he is ready to take the field if needed on Saturday in what could be a tough game against an in-form Waikato.
"I watched Waikato play last week, they were pretty impressive and play a confrontational game and that's something that maybe Northland can adapt to better but we've definitely been improving as the season's gone on," Collins said.
Woodward said he hoped the presence of the Northland veteran would provide extra motivation for the team when they needed it.
The coach said Northland had produced two under-par performances in their past two outings - a fortunate win against Otago and a loss to Counties - and they really need to make this one count.
"We have to go back to where we were before, the excuse that we're tired and beaten up is just not good enough anymore. We, like everybody else have got four games to go," he said.
He had hoped to promote Cam Goodhue into a starting role for tomorrow's match but Goodhue had to be stood down after picking up a concussion from last week's game. With hard working openside flanker Dan Pryor also needing a week off with a lengthy list of smaller injury concerns, Woodward saw the opportunity to bring Collins into the side.
"Bringing someone of Gus' status into the side adds intensity to anything we do and he has done quite a bit of training with us through the year and his voice is as important to us as his body," Woodward said. Another seasoned campaigner, Joel McKenty, replaces Prior at openside.
 
TEAMS
Northland: 15 Lachie Munro, 14 Mateo Malupo, 13 Jared Payne (c), 12 Aaron Bancroft, 11 Simon Munro, 10 David Holwell, 9 Rhyan Caine, 8 Cam Eyre, 7 Joel McKenty 6 Dean Budd, 5 Mark Burman, 4 Pat O'Connor, 3 Bronson Murray, 2 Tim Dow, 1 Matt Wallis. Reserves: 16 Mikaele Tuu'u, 17 Ross Wright, 18 Roy Griffin, 19 Justin Collins, 20 Luke Hamilton, 21 Adam Clarke, 22 Iwi Hauraki.

Waikato: 15 Trent Renata, 14 Sosene Anesi, 13 Save Tokula, 12 Christian Lealiifano, 11 Henry Speight, 10 Stephen Donald, 9 Brendon Leonard, 8 Alex Bradley, 7 Jack Lam, 6 Dominiko Waqaniburotu, 5 Romana Graham, 4 Toby Lynn, 3 Nathan White (c), 2 Aled de Malmanche, 1 Toby Smith. Reserves: 16 Vern Kamo, 17 Ben May, 18 Matt Vant Leven, 19 Zak Hohneck, 20 Tawera Kerr-Barlow, 21 Jackson Willison, 22 Frank Halai.