Chiefs boost Counties for new season

Counties-Manukau have made three crucial signings and struck a partnership deal with England's best club as part of their ambitious plans to restore the province to its former glory.

Former Steeler Blair Feeney returns to give the newly-promoted side direction from first five-eighths, while promising blindside Daniel Crichton and hooker John Fonokalafi have been lured from Auckland.

Feeney, 30, enjoyed a brief stint at the Highlanders in 2002, before heading to Italy and then England where he was most recently playing for Coventry.

Crichton is a bruising loose forward who made two NPC appearances off the bench last year. He was a team-mate of Isaia Toeava's at De La Salle College and is likely to be involved with the New Zealand Colts at the forthcoming Under-21 World Cup.

Fonokalafi played seven times for Auckland last season, making vital contributions against both the Lions and Otago in the NPC final. Aware that both Keven Mealamu and Derren Witcombe are on the books at Auckland, Fonokalafi switched allegiance in the hope it will lead to more time on the paddock.

He might be joined in the front row by prop Martin Halsall, who will arrive shortly from high-flying Sale to play club rugby and then push for a place in the Steelers squad.

The 21-year-old will come to New Zealand as part of a deal between Counties and Sale that will see the clubs swap players and coaching ideas.

The arrangement, that came to fruition due to Counties coach Kevin Putt having contacts at Sale, will see fringe players such as Halsall travel south in the northern off-season to further their education in the Air New Zealand Cup. Likewise, Counties players will head to Manchester to get regular football up there between October and May.

With Chiefs loose forward Kristian Ormsby having been signed last year, along with former Blues halfback Ben Meyer, and a heavyweight coaching team of Putt, Errol Brain and Darryl Suasua, Counties CEO Nick Shepherd is confident that Counties are on track to achieve the long-term goal of supplying the majority of the Chiefs squad in the next five to eight years.

"We are pretty realistic about this season," said Shepherd. "We know we might have to take a few on the chin so it's about earning back respect and letting people know that Counties-Manukau is on the radar again."

"For us it has never been about 2006. It has been about building momentum and building towards future seasons. We have every reason to believe that by 2009-2010 we will be contributing the majority of the players to the Chiefs squad."

Shepherd's conviction is based on the knowledge that it was less than 10 years ago that Counties made the first division NPC final, with Jonah Lomu and Joeli Vidiri terrorising defences.

The province is arguably New Zealand's best producer of prodigious talent, with the likes of Lomu, Sitiveni Sivivatu, Stephen Donald and Casey Laulala all originally making their mark at Counties. But as professionalism took hold in the late 1990s, they lost the ability to fend off the advances of bigger unions who had the cash to lure the best players.

Shepherd believes that with premier division status and a strong relationship with the Chiefs, Counties will be able to halt the exodus.

"We are working really hard at building our academy programmes and our relationship with Wesley College, to work with them in identifying talent and then developing it.

"If players can see there is a pathway for them at Counties, it gives us a better chance of retaining them. I think the haemorrhaging of players will stop. We won't hang on to all of them but if we can hang on to about 70 per cent it will be happy days."

Counties kick off their campaign on July 29 with a home game at Ericsson Stadium against Otago.