The Heartland rugby championship Meads Cup semifinal clash between Wairarapa-Bush and Wanganui will be played at Cooks Garden, Wanganui, on Saturday, not Sunday as originally advertised.
The New Zealand Rugby Union has changed the date back to the Saturday because initial plans to televise the Meads and Lochore cups semis live have been scrapped.
Had those plans remained in place, the Lochore Cup play-offs would have been on Saturday and the Meads Cup on Sunday but all four games will take place on Saturday starting at 2.30pm.
Judging by the army of supporters on hand to watch Wairarapa-Bush cement their Meads Cup semifinal spot with a 31-5 win over Horowhenua-Kapiti at Levin three days ago, fans will increase numbers hugely at Cooks Garden.
And that's music to the ears of Wairarapa-Bush head coach Mark Rutene, who says it will provide an extra incentive for his players to rise to the occasion.
"The bigger the support, the bigger the boost for the team. It does help lift the guys, no doubt about that."
Rutene said the main lesson learned from the Levin match was the value of patience with Wairarapa-Bush tending to rush things during a first half that ended with them holding a 9-0 lead and facing the prospect of playing into strong wind and squally rain in the second spell.
"We probably bombed two or three tries by spilling ball at crucial times - we could have been 20 points up at halftime and out of danger," he said. "We were too keen, we were moving the ball on when we might have been better to hit it up and drag the defence in."
The second half, however, was a different story with Wairarapa-Bush retaining possession for long periods and scoring four splendid tries in the process.
"That second half was exactly what we wanted, we couldn't have wished for more," Rutene said. "We knew we had to take control up front and wear them down, and that's what we did."
Wairarapa-Bush and Wanganui met in a qualifying round match in Masterton with Wanganui winning 26-19 after being 19-13 down going into the last 15 minutes.
Rutene is encouraged enough by the closeness of the exchanges there to believe Wairarapa-Bush are capable of reversing that result this weekend and also by the fact he and assistant coach Paddy Gough might well have a full squad to pick from.
The main doubt in that regard revolves around the fitness of wing Cameron Hayton who missed the Levin match through injury and was replaced by Inia Katia, who seemed to enjoy expressing his attacking talents.
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