Samu Kubunavanua rejoins the Steelform Whanganui squad for Saturday's clash with Poverty Bay in Gisborne. Photo / NZME
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With lessons to learn you go back to your graduated students, as Steelform Whanganui has added some experience back into their squad for the trip to Gisborne on Saturday.
Galled at their last-second loss in the Bunnings Heartland Championship opener to carry-over champions South Canterbury, coach Jason Hamlin has resisted significant changes to face Poverty Bay, but with a couple of players unavailable, two veterans initially outside of the squad due to injury issues take prominence.
Josaia Bogileka comes from the bench to the starting wing spot for Peceli Malanicagi, while loose forward Samu Kubunavanua rejoins the squad on the reserves, as part of the reshuffle caused by lock Peter Travis Hay-Horton’s withdrawal due to his shoulder injury.
The other change is the in-form Mitai Hemi comes back onto the bench for Cyrus Tasi, after strong performances for both the McFall Fuel Development XV and Whanganui Tāne Māori last Saturday.
“Peceli is not available this weekend – he’s getting married,” said Hamlin.
“Samu’s been floating around in the background, played a bit for the DV’s.
“When you lose two centenarians [Roman Tutauha, Lindsay Horrocks] and someone like Pinky [Josh Lane], you do lose that experience.
“Hopefully those boys can bring something to that.
“[Hemi] gets his opportunity, and we get the ‘Swiss army knife’ in Luke Whale – he can give us a bit of utility.”
Whale was the last-minute call-up due to Hay-Horton’s withdrawal last Saturday, as Hawke’s Bay youngster Rueben Allen moved into the starting lineup, and Whale can cover both the forwards and backs.
The 56-game veteran Kubunavanua was Whanganui’s originator of the basketball-style leaping to claim kickoffs – both receiving and attacking – a legacy which first Semi Vodosese and now Josefa Namosimalua have carried on, but was not quite perfect last Saturday.
“It’s close to 50-50, we took some of ours and we took some of theirs,” said Hamlin.
After losing an 11-point lead, Hamlin spoke to the side about execution in the little moments – the rucks were fairly even and Whanganui never lost a lineout, while giving away two scrum penalties.
South Canterbury’s proven backline got twice as many line breaks, but Whanganui’s cover defence scrambled well, so just a couple of little errors in their own half in the last eight minutes proved decisive.
“But that’s being really fussy, and they’re bitterly disappointed with it as well,” said Hamlin.
“As a team we didn’t do a great deal of [video analysis], just showed them what the stats are.
“We did so much of it really well, but we lost the game.
“South Canterbury have forgotten how to lose, and that’s where we need to get to.”
While Whanganui have never lost to Poverty Bay in the Heartland era, there have been some very tight tussles, especially in Gisborne, where the somewhat erratic home side can concede several tries but then turn it around to get their own very quickly.
No better illustration of this was their trip to Greymouth last weekend for the rematch with 2023 Lochore Cup winners West Coast, who pulled away at the end for a 38-29 win.
“They can score points and that’s just looking at it on paper,” said Hamlin.
“That’s their DNA, and we have to work well on what we’re doing.”
The squad flies out on Friday afternoon, with kickoff on Saturday at 2.30pm.
The McFall Fuel Whanganui Development XV made it two straight wins as their reinforced squad scored its first victory over the Heartland Hurricanes Under 20′s, 46-21 on Saturday.
Six players – three forwards and three backs – slotted in from the wider Steelform Whanganui group for the fixture at Spriggens Park, and coach Danny Tamehana said they pushed out early to get their 20-5 halftime lead, and then kept scoring as the visitors began to find their cohesion.
“We were exiting well, the midfield backs from the Whanganui boys – Fale and Mitai – they were awesome.
Faleseu Tauailoto and Mitai Hemi were the No12-13 combination, with Sheldon Pakinga taking over first-five and the goal-kicking roles.
Hemi played outstanding and then did double duty as he joined the Whanganui Tāne Māori for the next game against Manawatū Māori.
The try-scorers were spread around the squad, with Tamehana again praising 56-game former Heartland representative Samu Kubunavanua, who came off the bench.
“It was quite tidy actually, one of the strongest teams I’ve had as DV’s,” said Tamehana.
“They stayed strong, the Hurricanes boys lacked a bit of cohesion, but we did really well.”
The visitors, whose coaching staff includes Whanganui-based manager Chris Back and Waverley’s Todd Cowan as assistant coach, had only had their first training session together on the Friday.
Four of the five Whanganui representatives in the squad played – prop Sid Diamond, lock Keane Metekingi, flanker Jeff Dorset and fullback Remy Early, who unfortunately picked up an injury.
A strong second-half comeback was not quite enough for Whanganui Tāne Māori, who completed their representative campaign with a narrow 37-29 defeat to Manawatu Māori on Saturday.
The second game of a double header at Spriggens Park, as some McFall Fuel Whanganui Development XV players backed up for another run, Whanganui were trailing by roughly 30 points around halftime.
However, reinforced by a couple of Steelform Whanganui squad members like Mitai Hemi and Kahl Elgers-Green, the home side poured on all 29 of their points in the second stanza, but conceded one more score themselves to allow the visitors to keep their noses in front and retain the Miki Haddon Memorial taonga.
Whanganui Pasifika completed their matches against their neighbouring unions with a 43-23 defeat to Horowhenua-Kapiti Pasifika at Playford Park in Levin on Saturday.
Whanganui had lost 46-19 to Manawatu Pasifika the previous weekend.