Shakira Baker will be at centre for Wellington Pride in their top-of-table NPC women's rugby clash with Canterbury in Christchurch on Saturday.
A decision which is bad news for the Wairarapa College first XI girls hockey team which will have to do without her services in their Wellington secondary schoolgirls premier
division grand final match with St Matthew's Collegiate in Wellington tomorrow night.
It's a big loss for Wairarapa College as Baker was their leading goal scorer at the recent Federation Cup national tournament but not unexpected as the versatile sportswoman has regularly been hitting the headlines on the rugby scene, both for Eketahuna at club level and Wellington Pride in her debut season in the NPC.
Wellington Pride coach Grant Edmonds says Baker's selection at centre for the Canterbury match was aimed at adding more abrasiveness to his side's midfield attack
" She (Baker) bristles aggression and that's what we are going to need,"Edmonds said. "The more we can get her into the game the better".
Edmonds is also looking at having the other two Eketahuna players in the Wellington backline, Maia Tua-Davidson and Rebecca Mahoney, regularly swap between first-five or fullback, with the idea of keeping the Canterbury defence guessing.
"They are both quite capable of slotting into either role but they have a different mindset and we can use that to our advantage", he said.
Edmonds is anticipating Canterbury taking the battle to Wellington up front and he stresses the need for his pack, which will include Eketahuna's Perri Tatana at lock and Emma Aldworth at No.8, to fight with fire.
"They like to rumble the ball up in the forwards and we have to confront them from the word go," he said. "We have to get on the front foot and stay there."
Canterbuy leads the NPC points table going into what is the last of the round robin games with 19ts followed by Wellington on 16ts and Auckland on 13pts. The two top sides after Saturday will host the semi-finals the following weekend.
