Rugby
Front row forwards will always tell you whoever wins the scrum battle wins the match.
And how many times do you hear coaches saying exactly the same thing about what is arguably the most physically demanding area in any rugby game?
That defending champions Greytown will be banking on their ascendancy at scrum time to set up a win over East Coast in their Tui Cup premier division semifinal at Greytown tomorrow goes without saying.
It's not that East Coast have proved to be inept in that department, rather their front row stocks have been reduced to the point where they may be forced to lure an old hand out of retirement to make up the numbers.
So expect Greytown to target the scrum not only to spoil opposition ball but force East Coast into conceding penalties which will allow the accurate boot of Glen Walters to come into play.
All other aspects of the forward game should be more evenly contested. The lineout battle should be a cracker with Norm Henricksen and Regan Pope leading the way for Greytown, and Joe Feast and Wiremu Grace for East Coast. There will be plenty of action in the loose where Greytown will be expecting big things from Nathan Iro and Tana Isaac and East Coast from Ben Holmes and Tom Bowie.
Iro and Bowie are punishing runners in broken play and the more they get their hands on the ball the better for their sides.
Greytown have the greater depth in their backs. First-five Walters and midfielders Tapaga Isaac and Teihania Brown are likely to be part of this year's Heartland squad and the same goes for the pacy Tavita Isaac on the wing. The no-nonsense defensive approach of Tapaga Isaac and Brown, in particular, was amply demonstrated the last time these two teams met, their combined efforts creating numerous turnovers in a game won by Greytown by a wide margin.
Having said that you can never discount an East Coast rearguard which includes one of the best playmakers in the union, halfback Zeb Aporo, an underrated utility in Hohepa Thompson and Mr Opportunism himself, fullback Nick Olson, whose counter-attacking skills are second to none.
Three weeks off will mean Greytown will be fresh and ready to go but it could mean there is a rustiness over the early stages.
East Coast shouldn't have that problem but constant match play means players carrying niggling injuries have had little chance to ease the aches and pains.
Greytown are our pick, perhaps by as much as 10-15 points.
The other Tui Cup semifinal has Eketahuna at home to Pioneer and a cracker of a game is in prospect. Here, too, we have a case where one team, Pioneer, has had three weeks off, including a default to Greytown two weeks ago, which possibly cost them home advantage tomorrow, and the other, Eketahuna, which has been going at it week after week. Eketahuna will place huge emphasis on forward domination against a Pioneer side that is most dangerous when the ball is spread wide. If Pioneer can achieve anything like parity up front their backs will probably ensure it is they who will be progressing to the final at Memorial Park in a week's time
Eketahuna's forwards are a formidable unit. They scrum well, have good options at lineout time, notably Dan Griffin and Joss Tua-Davidson, and a plethora of talent in their loose forwards where Wairarapa-Bush skipper Johan Van Vliet is the spearhead, closely followed by Tua-Davidson, Richard Thurston and Rupeni Tamani.
But Pioneer's pack doesn't have the will to fight fire with fire. In Ihe Namana, Eruera Henare, Lee Ewe, Mike Harmon and, of course, that most outstanding of ball runners in broken play, Nathan Rolls, they are quite capable of lifting to the heights which will at least make them competitive against the Eketahuna eight.
The Pioneer backline is full of mainly up-and-comers who are at their best when running the ball at their opposition. Halfback Joseph Thompson has been a revelation this season and Himiona Haira, Damian Kamo-Paku, Nikora Ewe and Charlie Brown have the natural flair and pace to put any defensive structure under pressure.
Eketahuna's rearguard are, on the other hand, anything but flashy. They rely to a large degree on the boot of first-five Tom Meuli to keep their forwards on the front foot and they also have a useful counter attacker in fullback Dylan Bennett. Making their first tackles count will be of paramount importance tomorrow and if they do that the home team might just sneak this one by a single figure margin.
Radio Eketahuna (106.5FM) will have a live broadcast of the Eketahuna-Pioneer match and provide regular updates of the Greytown-East Coast match.
They will also cove the curtain-raiser at Eketahuna where the Eketahuna women's team play Feilding Old Boys in a Manawatu competition match that will decide the winner of the Prue Christie Cup. A preview of that game is on P27.