Wairarapa-Bush rugby coach Peter Russell was talking positive after his team's 24-16 loss to Manawatu in a non-championship match at Palmerston North last night. Russell was delighted that a Wairarapa-Bush side in their final build-up game to their Ranfurly Shield challenge at Jade Stadium on July 11 had been hugely competitiveagainst a Manawatu team preparing for their debut season in the NPC premier division. "It was probably only the bounce of the ball which cost us a win," he said. "They (Manawatu) got a couple of rather lucky second half tries and that was the difference in the end." Russell also bemoaned the fact that Lady Luck had not exactly favoured Wairarapa-Bush themselves with two almost certain tries going begging because passes were ruled to have gone forward. "They looked to be quite tough calls but I guess that's the way it goes sometimes," he said. Particularly pleasing for the Wairarapa-Bush coach was that his team had not shown any sign of a previous tendency to play 40 minutes of quality rugby and 40 minutes of ordinary rugby. "The message was that we needed to go hard out for the full 80 minutes and we did that," he said. The Wairarapa-Bush pack was in impressive form with the recalled duo Mike Robinson and Brendan Walker having big games. Walker may still have some work to do fitness-wise but he was the anchorman in a scrum which coped well in that department while Robinson took down some useful lineout ball at number two and was invariably at the forefront of the forward drives which gained good metreage for his side. There was some telling play in the tight too from loosehead prop Brett Rudman and even though lock Tomasi Kedrabauka was suffering from a stomach bug he had another solid game as well. In the backs Wairarapa-Bush benefitted immensely from having the "old crew", Nathan Couch and Simanu Simanu, combining in midfield for the first time this season and they were strong performers on both attack and defence. First-five Paddy Rimene was generally astute in his decision making and provided 11 points with his boot while Wairarapa-Bush's only try went to wing Tommy Harmon who was typically aggressive in everything he did. Intentions were to have former Buller rep Junior Tongia on the other wing but he was yet again sidelined by injury and his place was taken by Lawrence Matthews.
