Rugby: 'Sunshine' glows on secret raw fish diet

Richie McCaw might disagree, but Rotoiti's Dave "Sunshine" Fraser says the key to being a good openside flanker is eating plenty of raw fish.

Fraser, who has been a standout in the No7 jersey for Rotoiti this season, walks to the Springfield Takeaway store every day to buy a punnet of raw fish.

"It must be good for you," he said. "It's a pre-training protein hit."

Fraser said he kept his secret formula relatively quiet among teammates but thought it might catch on in the future.

Fraser and his teammates will travel to Blake Park tomorrow to play Mt Maunganui, who have also won one game and lost one this season.

If Fraser's nickname is anything to go by, it could be a good result for Rotoiti.

He said he picked up the nickname during his high school years and it had simply stuck.

"I used to have long blonde hair and some people thought I looked like the guy from the movie Remember The Titans. There was a guy on there called Sunshine," he said.

"It's also because I make everyone happy when I am around."

At the age of 22, Fraser is already one of the older players in the Rotoiti squad who won their first game of the season against Opotiki last weekend.

"We have always had a young team but we have a couple of new young fellas [playing] this year," Fraser said.

"We definitely improved last week and we can only get better during the rest of the season."

Rotorua's only other premier rugby side, Whakarewarewa, will battle newly promoted Paroa at Puarenga Park tomorrow at 2.45pm.

Whakarewarewa coach Maurice Stone admitted to not knowing too much about his side's opposition apart from one or two players but believed, based on results through two rounds of the competition, any side was capable of knocking over any other on a given day.

"[Tomorrow's game] will be a good gauge of where we are at and in a competition as tight as this you really need to win your games at home," Stone said.

The return of Peter "Boxer" Smith at prop should go some way to strengthening the Whakarewarewa scrum this weekend after they were beaten handsomely by Tauranga last weekend.

In other matches, Greerton Marist host Te Puna, Opotiki host Tauranga and Te Puke host Rangataua.

In division one fixtures, Ngongotaha will travel to Te Puke to play against Rangiuru Senior A and Waikite will host Te Teko.