Wairarapa-Bush coach Peter Russell wants an 80-minute performance from his team in their NPC third division rugby match with Mid-Canterbury at Ashburton on Saturday.
With five wins and one draw from their six preliminary round games to date noone could quibble at Wairarapa-Bush's record but Russell is adamant they still have
more to offer.
"We haven't keep the momentum up for the full 80 minutes in any match yet," he said.
"We've played a lot of good rugby in stages, but we've never strung a whole game together."
The prize for the winner of Saturday's match is a home semi-final and Russell said his squad was "very keen" to achieve that objective.
But he knows that won't happen unless Wairarapa-Bush turn efforts like the second 40 minutes of their game with King Country or the first 30 minutes of their game with West Coast last weekend into a full 80 minutes of the same endavour.
"We have shown the ability to dominate good teams but we haven't sustained the pressure all the way through," he said. "It's as if we have been holding something back and hopefully we'll kick that habit this weekend."
Russell describes Mid-Canterbury, who were relegated from second division at the end of last season, as a well-structured side who played a basic style of rugby.
"They don't seem to do anything fancy ??..they just concentrate on doing the right things at the right time" he said.
Russell said Wairarapa-Bush would be going into Saturday's game with a positive attitude.
He sees the strong running and flair of their outside backs as a potential match winner, but warns the first priority must be to obtain a good measure of quality ball from the forward exchanges.
"Backs can only be effective if the ball they are getting is on the front foot and it's up to the forwards to supply that sort of possession," he said.
The starting line-up for Wairarapa-Bush on Saturday will be exactly the same as it was for the West Coast match last weekend which means that young Gladstone lock Dan Joblin retains his position ahead of Eketahuna's Dan Griffin.
Joblin was a somewhat surprise selection for the West Coast game but impressed with his enthusiasm in all aspects of tight forward play.
