Fitness seen as the edge

Wairarapa-Bush rugby coach Peter Russell is counting on his team having at least two factors in their favour when they take on Poverty Bay in the NPC third division grand final in Gisborne on Saturday.
Russell believes Wairarapa-Bush will be the fitter of the two teams and he also believes that whereas they are yet to play their full potential Poverty Bay has less scope for improvement.
On the fitness issue Russell said his side could actually take heart from their preliminary round match with Poverty Bay despite the latter winning by a decisive 30-5.
He said the Wairarapa-Bush forwards had been so physically dominant in the first 20 minutes that going into halftime their Poverty Bay counterparts were practically down to a walk.
But, unfortunately, Wairarapa-Bush came up with their most lack lustre effort of the season in the second 40 minutes and allowed Poverty Bay to regain their composure-and their breath- and pull away for a comfortable victory.
"We've talked a lot since about that second half effort and I'd be very surprised if we fell into that trap again," Russell said. "If we can slow them up by halftime we'll be keeping the foot on the pedal this time round."
The Wairarapa-Bush coach is optimistic too that the lapses in concentration which have all too prevalent in his team's NPC matches this season won't be a problem in the competition decider.
He said his players were well aware of their failings in this regard and were determined to throw everything they had at Poverty Bay for the game's entirety.
"We have to be as strong mentally as we are physically," he said. " Everybody has to be on the same wave length all the way through."
Russell sees putting points on the board early in proceedings as being vital for Wairarapa-Bush in that it will create doubt in the minds of Poverty Bay who will go into the match as firm favourites.
"Playing catch up rugby is never easy and it can be even harder when the expectations are that you should be dominating matters," he said. "If we can get them into that frame of mind early on it's got to be a bonus, doesn't it?"
Injury has forced one change to be made to the Wairarapa-Bush starting XV for Saturday's match.
For the third time this season Eketahuna winger Jorji Tamani has broken a bone in his arm, the latest coming midway through the first half in last weekend's semi-final victory over Mid-Canterbury.
Losing someone with Tamani's attacking flair would normally be seen as a big blow, but his replacement Jaco Pieterse has shown excellent form over the past month or so. In fact ,so impressive had he been that he seemed rather unlucky to lose his place to Tamani for the semi-final.
Tactically, coach Russell is intent on having Wairarapa-Bush stick to a simple game plan which revolves around gaining control up front and using the ball wisely in the backs.
And he wants them to be assertive in the manner in which they attack and defend.
""It's an all or nothing game for us and there's no point in standing back and waiting for things to happen," he said. "We have to go hard???.there's no other way."