Benji may make Masterton debut

HEADING OUR WAY: High-profile rugby recruit Benji Marshall is set to take on the Hurricanes in Masterton.PHOTO/FILE

The much-heralded debut of rugby league star Benji Marshall for the Blues Super 15 rugby franchise could come in Masterton early next year.

The Blues are scheduled to play a pre-season fixture against the Hurricanes at Memorial Park on February 1 and Marshall is likely to be the main attraction in a squad containing several high-profile acquisitions or returnees.

And if that is the case it should guarantee a packed ground and huge media exposure for a game that would normally have been played on a farm paddock in the small northern Wairarapa township of Mangatainoka ... as it has over the past four years with marked success.

The swap to Memorial Park is not permanent with organisers, Tui Breweries, simply wanting to give Mangatainoka farmer Neil "Skin" Symonds a well-earned break from the two months it takes to groom his paddock for the big game and so Masterton has become the venue for the 2014 edition, a situation which Wairarapa-Bush chief executive Tony Hargood agrees could probably not have come at a better time.

"Just the thought of seeing Benji Marshall in the flesh is going to have a lot of people buzzing," Hargood said. "And when you throw all the other stars from both teams into the mix ... it's going to be a cracker."

Even without Marshall, in fact, the Blues would have enough headline grabbers to have the Wairarapa sporting fraternity salivating at the prospect of seeing them in action.

The much-maligned, but well-performed midfielder Ma'a Nonu and prop Tony Woodcock are two All Blacks who played for the Highlanders this year while other All Black "gains" are loose forward Jerome Kaino, who is returning from Japan, and lock Tom Donnelly, who was with the Crusaders this year.

Throw in other names like Kevin Mealamu, Charlie Faumuina, Steven Luatua, Piri Weepu, Francis Saili and Charles Piutau, not to mention new skipper Luke Braid, and the Blues have a roster of immense quality. And with John Kirwan and Sir Graham Henry heading their coaching staff they are not too badly off in that department either!

The Hurricanes, for their part, have just named a powerful 2014 Super 15 squad as well. They have nine All Blacks - Dane Coles, Ben Franks, Jeremy Thrush, Jeffrey Toomaga-Allen, Beauden Barrett, Cory Jane, TJ Perenara, Julian Savea and Conrad Smith - plus All Black "apprentice" Ardie Savea.

All told the Hurricanes have 26 players returning from the 2013 season.