Semi-final will bring out best in teams

Marist coach Sid Tatana and his Pioneer counterpart Ben Fox are agreed on at least one thing leading into their Wairarapa-Bush senior first division rugby semi-final match at Memorial Park on Saturday, and that's the spur of playing each other will bring out the best in both sides.
Marist and Pioneer have had some titanic struggles over many seasons now and Tatana and Fox are firm in their belief that nothing will change on this occasion.
Tatana said the great rivalry between the two clubs was probably borne out of them having their clubrooms alongside each other at Memorial Park until Pioneer moved to their present home at the Park Sportsground.
"We were always digging at them and they at us, even to the point of trying to convince players to shift from one club to the other," Tatana recalled. "You never had any trouble motivating yourself for the games then, and that's still the case."
Fox agreed that playing Marist was always something special for Pioneer. "Probably of all the clubs in the area they are the one we want to beat the most, we love beating them and they love beating us."
Well, the beatings have gone both ways this season. Marist went one up when they won their grading round clash 27-19 but Pioneer bounced back to win their top six encounter 17-13.
A typically honest assessment from Tatana is that Marist have got to the semis without playing to their full potential.
"We've tended to have a brilliant first half and an ordinary second, or visa versa," he said. "It's hard to remember any game where we've actually strung a full 80 minutes of good rugby together. That's the big aim for Saturday and we'll need to pull it off to win, simple as that."
Tatana says the onus will be on his forwards to nullify the influence of Pioneer's impressive loose forward trio of the Rolls brothers, Isaac and Nathan, and Boof Carberry, who have all been in dynamic form in recent weeks. And that would only be done by moving ball quickly away from the set pieces and protecting possession.
"We don't have the biggest pack around but they are mobile and that's something we have to utilise," Tatana said. "We need to keep moving from phase to phase, we don't really want a game dominated by lineouts and scrums."
Tatana is keen too for his backs to be given every chance to exploit their attacking skills and, to that end, he has been delighted with the progress made by youngsters like winger Abel Ripene and halfback Api Matenga in the company of proven old hands like Patrick Rimene, Nathan Couch, Ben Couch and Phil Aporo.
"We know a lot of teams think they only to have to close down Chopper (Nathan Couch) and Paddy to keep us quiet but that doesn't worry us, obviously they have all the skills but there is more to the backline than just them," he said.
Fox, like Tatana, doesn't pull any punches when asked to comment on his team's overall performance this season. Injuries hadn't help their consistency but neither had a lack of discipline.
"We've been hammering away all season about how important discipline is and I think the penny has finally dropped," he said. "We aren't making so many silly mistakes now, we have become a lot more structured in how we play and that's showed through in the results."
Fox says while his loose trio have tended to capture the headlines, and deservedly so, Pioneer were also benefiting from the immense experience of players like prop Anton Kainuku in the tighter exchanges. Remarkably, Kainuku is in his 21st season of senior first division rugby and, just as remarkably, he will be up against a player with similar longevity in the Marist front row, Lee Paku. How often they have fronted up to each other over the years is anybody's guess.
Fox also has faith in the ability of his backs to measure up well to Marist in an attacking sense. He points to the fact that Jamie Smallman at second-five has constantly been a thorn in the side of opposition defences with his hard, straight running and that Stu Waipuka and Jordan Fox are proven finishers.
"We know how good the Marist backs are but we won't be overawed by them," Fox said.
Possible starting line-ups for Saturday are:-
MARIST: Patrick Rimene; Jaco Pieterse, Phil Aporo, Ben Couch, Abel Ripene; Nathan Couch; Api Matenga;
Joe Nuku; Anthony Balks, Michael Hughes, Corey Reid, Geordie Walden; Blair Gardner, Kyle Karaitiana, Lee Paku.
PIONEER: Tom Davidson; Jordan Fox, Stu Waipuka, Jamie Smallman, Travell Rimene; Peter Turner; Tipi Rimene; Nathan Rolls; Isaac Rolls, Henare Te Whare, David Ewe, Boof Carberry; Anton Kainuku, Victor Thompson, Cliff Graham.
The other semi-finalists, Eketahuna and Gladstone, will be profiled tomorrow.