Greytown coach Alby Matthews has his feet firmly planted on the ground as his side prepares to kick off their 2012 Wairarapa-Bush premier division rugby campaign with a match against Pioneer tomorrow.
It is a home game for Pioneer, playing at their Jeans St grounds in Masterton.
The southerners, who drew a bye last weekend, are coming off some impressive pre-season form, including a Robert Guildford Memorial Trophy win over Napier Tech seconds. Even after a comprehensive defeat of Carterton, Matthews isn't about to make any outlandish predictions about their overall prospects.
"We're pretty optimistic we can do well but we'll wait and see what happens early on before we get too carried away," Matthews said yesterday.
"Pioneer is a tough start for us, I'm picking they'll play the same up-tempo game so it should be interesting."
The return of pacy utility back Tapaga Isaac to the Greytown fold means there could be as many as five Isaac brothers on the field at the same time this season. Two won't be playing tomorrow, Tapaga being in Australia for another couple of weeks and Seanoa is recovering from a broken leg suffered in one of the warm-up games.
Tavita, Josef and Tana Isaac, all of whom could also be labelled utility backs, will be on hand though and will be joined in the rearguard by regulars Joseph Sio, Rhys Lett and Kingi Kaiwai. The Matthews duo, Jackson and Tyler, are up-and-comers who could be given their opportunity too.
Up front, Greytown have experience in the form of Kurt Simmonds, John Avatea, Gareth van Dalen and PJ Freeman and a talented newcomer in prop Jaden Carter. But although they should measure up well in the scrums and in the loose there are questions about their lineout. "We've decided we are not having any of those," joked coach Matthews.
Pioneer will have taken confidence from their narrow win over East Coast last weekend and are always a handful when playing before their army of supporters at their Jean St headquarters. Talented first-five Tipene Haira will be calling the shots for them.
Eketahuna's dynamic flankers Johan Van Vliet and Rupeni Tamani were outstanding in their team's win over Marist last Saturday and they will be a handful for Gladstone in their clash under lights at Gladstone tonight. Van Vliet is a youngster who has made huge progress over the past couple of seasons and it would be no surprise to see him wearing a Hurricanes jersey in the not-too-distant future. Remember you heard it here first.
It was their fitness which apparently impressed the most when Bush Sports demolished the Rams last Saturday and they will be hot favourites when they meet Marist at Pahiatua tomorrow. Marist were brave against Eketahuna but you get the feeling it will be a week or two before they hit their straps.
The feature game at Memorial Park tomorrow will see East Coast and the Rams seeking their first wins of the Kapene Cup competition and it's likely that the more experienced East Coast will prevail by a comfortable margin.
An intriguing contest looks in store when Martinborough and Puketoi battle at Martinborough. The home team certainly had people talking with their 30-5 beating of defending premier division champions Gladstone last weekend and Puketoi were probably a little bit disappointing in their loss to Carterton. On that basis you'd have to plump for a Martinborough win but this could be one of the closer games in this round.