St Johns Club Whanganui Metro heads into the final game of round robin in the Manawatu Colts division rugby championship full of self belief, surprisingly on the back of 19-7 loss to unbeaten competition leaders Feilding Yellow on Saturday.
Mark Cosford, who co-coaches alongside Russell Gedye, said the final scorewas misleading after Feilding came back late in the game when Metro was a man down.
"I think we dominated most of the first half at least, if not much of he second spell as well," Cosford said.
"We held Feilding to a nil-all draw at half time and then we scored first in the second half to take a 7-nil lead. They came back and scored pretty much against the run of play and then we had a man sent off. They captitalised scoring again late, but I think we gave them a bit of a fright performing as we did this time around."
The loss, and College Old Boys' 31-19 win over Massey White, slipped the Metro lads back to fourth on the table, but still well in the hunt for a semifinal spot in a fortnight.
"We play Massey Ag, who are sitting down the table, at home this weekend and a win will probably give us a semifinal against Massey White. We have a win a-piece after we beat them in round one and they beat us this round. It will be an interesting semi.
"I really think Saturday's game against Feilding has given our guys a sense of self belief and that's enormous for these young fellows. If we win Saturday and back that up with a place in the semis it will be a great achievement for such a young side," Cosford said.
Metro Whanganui are the defending champions of this Manawatu competition, but only a handful of players remain from that victorious 2018 team.
