Players lack commitment

Wairarapa-Bush rugby coach Graeme Cheetham is disappointed at the lack of commitment being shown by some players currently in the reckoning for places in his side this season. Cheetham and his co-coach Lofty Stevenson named 64 players to attend a training session on Sunday in readiness for a trial match to be played at Memorial Park, Masterton a week later but only 45 attended. And, what was worse, none of the other 19 bothered to make any excuse for not being there.
"You have to be disappointed when so many players don't turn up?that sort of commitment just isn't good enough," Cheetham said. "You have to wonder whether those guys have any interest at all at playing at rep level, don't you?"
Not surprisingly Cheetham is at a loss to understand why all players named for the May 13 trial aren't champing at the bit to strut their stuff, both in training and on the field of play. For with more than half the squad which won Wairarapa-Bush the inaugural Heartland title in 2006 likely to be missing this year many places are clearly up for grabs.
"There is a huge opportunity for players who haven't yet played at rep level to show they are capable of making the grade there," Cheetham said. "But if they aren't prepared to make a total commitment then there's not much point in them thinking that far ahead, is there?"
Cheetham said players with representative aspirations needed to take next Sunday's trial "very seriously". He and Stevenson would be assessing form shown there carefully and it would play a big part in the naming of their side to play Wellington in the annual Jimmy Cotter Memorial Trophy match in Masterton on May 22.
"We didn't organise a trial for fun, it's an important part of the selection process,' Cheetham said.
Fitness is one aspect which the two Wairarapa-Bush coaches will be noting as they consider some contenders for the rep side still have some work to do to bring themselves up to scratch in that area.
"We can't afford fitness to be any sort of issue for us once the rep season gets into full swing?if we fall down there we won't be competitive, that's the way it is," he said.
Cheetham said he and Stevenson would not be formulating a specific game plan for Wairarapa-Bush until they had selected their representative squad as it would depend to a large extent on the skills of the particular players chosen. But a general objective was to base their tactics around an attractive style of rugby which would see the backs given every chance to make use of their attacking capabilities.
"We want to win games by scoring more tries than the opposition and you are not going to do that if fitness is a problem," he said.
Next Sunday's trial could also help decide whether Cheetham and Stevenson are encouraged to include only local talent in their rep squad or whether they feel inclined to name at least a couple of "imports" to boost their resources.
"We're still working on the basis that we will go solely with locals but again that's something which will become clear a little further down the track," he said. "Right now though the onus is on the locals to show they can step up to the mark and the trial will be a good starting point in that respect."