Rutene says draw is no problem

Rugby

Wairarapa-Bush will host defending Meads Cup champions East Coast during their 2013 Heartland Championship rugby campaign.

Their clash is the seventh of eight qualifying round matches for the local side and will be played at Memorial Park in Masterton on Saturday, October 5. Preceding it will be games against North Otago in Oamaru on August 24, West Coast in Masterton on August 31, Mid-Canterbury in Ashburton on September 7, Horowhenua-Kapiti in Masterton on September 14, King Country in Masterton on September 21 and Lochore Cup champions Buller in Masterton on September 28.

After the East Coast clash, it will be off to Paeroa to play Thames Valley on October 12.

All told there are 11 teams in the Heartland championship and those Wairarapa-Bush will not meet in the qualifying matches are last year's Meads Cup beaten finalists Wanganui, Poverty Bay and South Canterbury.

Understandably, Wairarapa-Bush coach Mark Rutene is taking a relaxed attitude over the draw, saying that with teams often changing dramatically from season to season it was unwise to write off any of them.

"Obviously, it's nice to miss Wanganui because they always seem to be among the front-runners but, really, you've got to treat everybody the same way, there are no easy games."

The format for the 2013 championship is the same as last year with the top four teams after qualifying rounds going through to the Meads Cup semifinals and the next four contesting the Lochore Cup semis.

Rutene is planning for Wairarapa-Bush to have at least four lead-up matches to the Heartland competition and the first of them could come in May. Hopes are for Wairarapa-Bush to play Horowhenua-Kapiti as a curtain-raiser to one of the Hurricanes' Super 15 matches, as they did in 2012.

The touring United States Universities team will play Wairarapa-Bush in Masterton in June and, later, there will be a non-championship match in Gisborne against Poverty Bay and very probably another fixture with either Horowhenua-Kapiti or the New Zealand Army.

Meanwhile, Rutene liked what he saw from the opening series of Kapene Memorial Cup premier division club games last weekend.

The draw for this week is: Carterton v East Coast at Carterton, Greytown v Bush Sports at Greytown, Marist v Puketoi at Memorial Park, Martinborough v Gladstone at Martinborough, Pioneer v Eketahun at Jeans Street, Masterton.