Rugby rep season will be no bed of roses

Even a cursory glance at the 60-plus players named to take part in Sunday's Wairarapa-Bush rugby trial match at Memorial Park tells you the 2007 representative season will be no bed of roses.
New selector-coaches Graeme Cheetham and Lofty Stevenson were always going to have a hard act to follow after Wairarapa-Bush's successes in the NPC third division competition and the Heartland championship over the past two seasons.
And their task has been made even more difficult with several key players in those sides missing from Sunday's trial because of a mix of OE, injury, and possible retirements. In fact it is abundantly clear the number of new faces in the line-up to face Wellington in the annual Jimmy Cotter Memorial Trophy match later this month could well exceed double figures.
Which means in turn that Cheetham and Stevenson's decision to hold a trial can easily be justified on the basis they have had only a handful of opportunities to judge the abilities of some of the participants at club level, and this gives them an extra chance to do so.
Cheetham says trial form will play a big part when the squad for the Wellington game is announced early next week.
The intention is to have three 30-minute spells so that every player can have adequate match time to make an impression, and it will also give the selectors the opportunity to try certain triallists in more than one position.
"There are a number of players who are capable of playing well in two or three positions and we need to see where they are best suited as far as we are concerned," Cheetham said.
Probably no one position will attract more interest on Sunday than first-five, the position which has belonged to the prolific-scoring Patrick Rimene for the past few seasons.
Rimene is still turning out for his Marist club but has sensibly decided to stand aside from rep rugby for the near future at least because the drive to play at that level has been dimmed by what was a very intensive 2006 season, a season which ended for him and six other Wairarapa-Bush players with a short tour of Argentina by the national Heartland side.
First-five has always been seen as a pivotal role in any rugby side and even more so nowadays when constant video analysis has meant that defence systems have become so sophisticated and difficult to crack.
Indications are the starting first-fives in Sunday's trial will be Gladstone's Matt Easton and Puketoi's Jason Liverton with another Gladstone player in George Williams and Carterton's Nathan Sanson likely to be given a run there too.
Perhaps some thought will be given to trying experienced Eketahuna campaigner Hamish McKenzie at first-five as well.
He would normally be the first choice halfback but has performed capably one place further out in the past and it would be no surprise if he was considered the safest bet there for the Wellington game, especially with another seasoned player in James Bruce (Gladstone) able to fill the halfback spot.
Interesting too will be the choices for tighthead prop.
Apart from Eketahuna's Brendan Walker there is an obvious shortage of experience there as well, and from all accounts club play to date has indicated the fitness of most front row forwards is still somewhat short of what should be expected at rep level.
Cheetham says he and Stevenson will be paying little attention to past reputation when it comes to naming their side to play Wellington with the onus being fairly and squarely on current form.
And he also warns that any player named to attend the trial who doesn't bother to turn up without good excuse will be out of the reckoning for rep selection this season.
"We can't afford to waste time with players whose attitude isn't where it should be," he said.
Sunday's trial will kick off at 1pm and will be preceded by a Manawatu secondary schoolgirls competition match between Barbarians and Tararua College.
Club games
Defending champions Carterton have been the most talked about team in the Wairarapa-Bush senior first division club series to date this season, what with them yet to register a win in four matches and sitting at the very bottom of the points table. It's a record they will obviously be keen to set straight and their game against Pioneer at the latter's Jean street headquarters in Masterton tomorrow would be a good starting point for that to happen.
Problem is though that Pioneer are always a difficult team to topple on their home turf and with two wins already under their belts their confidence has to be running higher than that of their opposition.
Carterton's best chance of upsetting Pioneer will come though domination of the forward exchanges but whether they have the necessary unity there to manage that is the $64,000 question.
Of the two unbeaten sides Gladstone and Greytown-Tuhirangi it is Gladstone who appears the better bet to continue on their winning way this weekend. They will be at home to a Masterton Red Star side bouyed by their draw with East Coast last weekend but hardly likely to measure up to Gladstone in the forwards or backs.
Greytown-Tuhirangi won't be expecting any favours from an Eketahuna team which has won three out of four and which will have the home advantage. Eketahuna could have the edge in the backs with experienced duo Hamish McKenzie and Simanu Simanu calling the shots there so Greytown-Tuhirangi will be looking to their pack to win the lion's share of quality possession and therefore curb the threat they pose.
Marist, which has also lost just the one game thus far, should keep in touch with the pace by accounting for Puketoi at Puketoi but while Martinborough has a better record than their rivals, East Coast, the fact the latter will be at home makes that match a difficult one to predict with any surety.