There was good news for Wairarapa-Bush rugby in the aftermath of the 23-20 loss to Wanganui in the Heartland championship Meads Cup semifinal match at Cooks Garden, Wanganui, on Saturday.
While head coach Mark Rutene and his assistant, Paddy Gough, are still to confirm their availability for next season they have expressed a keenness to continue in their roles.
And there is also a strong chance virtually all those who took the field for Wairarapa-Bush in Heartland games this season will be back on deck as well.
"I think the general feeling after Saturday's game was that we were left with some unfinished business, that winning the Meads Cup is definitely an achievable goal for next year," Rutene told the Times-Age yesterday. "Nobody was talking about leaving, we were all pretty excited about how things went and what the future could hold."
Rutene was delighted with the application of his players in the Meads Cup semifinal, saying they had been asked to leave nothing on the paddock and they had responded superbly to that challenge.
"They gave it everything they had and, had a couple of close calls gone our way, well who knows what might have happened. We gave it our best shot, no doubt about that."
Extra motivation for Wairarapa-Bush came on match morning when they learned one of the union's centurions from former years, Kevin "KP" Keegan, had passed away. Black armbands were worn in his memory and a minute's silence was held before kick-off.
"We spoke about what Kevin had done for local rugby, as a player and a supporter," Rutene said. "He was very much on our minds."
Particularly pleasing for the coaching staff was that both Wairarapa-Bush tries came from attacking ploys formulated after possible deficiencies in the Wanganui defensive structures had been detected in pre-match analysis.
"We worked out a couple of areas where they could be caught out and they were."
Rutene agreed the disallowing of a try late in the first half to flying Wairarapa-Bush winger Nathan Hunt after he was certain of a first touch of the ball was a big call but wasn't prepared to give an opinion on it.
"My initial thoughts were that Nathan hadn't got there but then I saw him pleading to the referee for the try and I thought, gee he might have made it ... personally I was in no position to see." (A photograph appearing in yesterday's Times-Age certainly left the impression Hunt probably did score).
Reflecting on a 2012 season which saw Wairarapa-Bush win six of their nine Heartland games after only having managed the one victory the previous season, Rutene said making the Meads Cup semifinals had always been a personal goal.
"I always thought we were capable of being a top four side and now I'm thinking we were actually good enough to do even better than that," he said.
"The environment was a big part of it, everybody bought in to what we were trying to achieve and did their best to make it happen."