Hawke's Bay club rugby: A garden of Eden for Taradale at McLean Park

Taradale kicker, Brad Truesdale slots another one between the posts in a meeting between the sides earlier this year. Photo / NZME

One of the successes of the union's staging of all five club finals at the home of Hawke's Bay rugby, McLean Park in Napier, is that eight clubs are among the 10 teams at the centre of the action.

But it's still a garden of Eden for mighty-maroons Taradale, who are appearing in three of the finals and are the only club represented in more than one final.

The feast of club rugby will culminate with the Premier grade Maddison Trophy final between Taradale and Hastings Rugby and Sports, starting at 3pm on Saturday.

It'll be the club's third Premier finals match-up in a row, Hastings winning the Maddison Trophy final last year, and Taradale the Nash Cup first-round final 11 weeks ago – with a stunning 46-19 win.

It may be that that win is the biggest pointer to Taradale's hopes of winning the silver-ball trophy for the first time in four finals since last winning it in 2010.

The sides have shown throughout the season that at full strength each is head and shoulder above other opposition in the Premier grade, and just as it was in the Nash Cup final in May it is Hastings that will be the side not quite at full strength.

The major absences from the Hastings side are expected to be two of their Magpies, injured prop Jason Long and just-departed wing Mason Emerson, now headed for a new rugby career abroad.

With Hawke's Bay Magpies squad members allowed to play ahead of the second Ranfurly Shield defence on the same ground seven days later, against East Coast, the strength of both sides is marked by each having three of those who played in the Magpies' 85-0 Ranfurly Shield defence against North Otago on June 30.

Taradale stalwart Reka Eden reckoned his club is just the ticket for the three finals at McLean Park, including the battle against Hastings for the Maddison Trophy. Photo / Doug Laing

Another five from Taradale were in the shadow-Magpies Saracens squad for the Queen's Birthday match against Wairarapa Bush, along with another two from Hastings.

At the risk of tempting fate, one who is confident about Taradale's hopes not only in the Maddison Trophy final is now 64-year-old "I'm on the pension next year" club stalwart Reka Eden, who played in four of Taradale's past Maddison Trophy wins, in 1979, 1981, 1983 and 1985.

He also featured as manager in a 23-11 grand final win over normal trophy arch rivals Havelock North at Park Island in 2006 – a triumph prefaced by a 20-19 semifinal win over Hastings Rugby and Sport.

His own last competition match as a player was a third division final against Clive, about 17 years ago.

Asked if Taradale "would" win all three matches this weekend – the Friday night Division 3 final against Clive and a Saturday-afternoon Colts final against Waipukurau club Central – Eden, displaying the loyalty of his life membership, was unhesitant. "Yes," he said.

It's not just because the Eden name is there yet again, with 24-year-old son Thomas on the subs' bench and "grand-nephew" Josh Eden-Whaitiri starting at lock, not to mention links in both Friday night finals with nephew Johnny Baker coaching the Taradale "thirds" again Clive, and Josh's brother, Sheldon Eden-Whaitiri, referring the Division 1 final between Havelock North and Aotea.

Reka Eden had two other sons play for the top Taradale team, all part of a family legacy thought to have started when his eldest brother started playing about 60 years ago, and it all comes down to loyalty and family in the club.

He said the atmosphere at the Tareha Reserve clubhouse this week was "brilliant" and that while the players had "done it" for the club, the stalwarts and the families during the season, it's now time to do it for themselves.

Loyalty and whanau in the club is one thing that hasn't changed, he says, and this weekend highlights the depth in the club, when some clubs are struggling to field a single team.

The biggest change has been the length of the club season, which for Taradale back in the day started with the weekly pack-runs up the Taradale hills from early January and "compulsory" for those who wanted to play for the top team.

Also "compulsory" is that the life members wear the "number ones" to the game, something Reka Eden recalls from his playing days and the drive of now late-life member George Chalmers.

Back in the day, the Taradale Senior Division 1 team, as it was in the Napier-Hastings competition before the Maddison Trophy went Hawke's Bay-wide 30 years ago, would regularly have at least four preseason games before competitions started in April, with annual matches against Manawatu club Oroua and Poverty Bay club GMC, and an Easter quadrangular with Masterton club Red Star, Wellington club Upper Hutt, and Manawatu club Linton Army.

Eden says many clubs struggle to get preseason matches, but Taradale got in a couple which prepared it well for the season.

Each side this time has the firepower, with much likely to be told in the control of set-piece possession and the clash of the midfield backs, with Kienan Higgins and Hemaua Samasoni pairing for Taradale and Ausage Fomai and Danny Toala for Hastings.

The Saturday matches at McLean Park start with the Division 2 final between Hastings club MAC and Central Hawke's Bay side Waipawa Country United, followed by the Colts final between Taradale and Waipukurau side Central, and then, the big game.