Rugby: Ben Tameifuna may be green, but he's got the bulk

Bulldozing Ben Tameifuna has been called into the Chiefs' pack after only a few NPC games for Hawkes Bay. Picture / APN

Into the breach steps Ben Tameifuna - all 138kg of him.

The 20-year-old Hawkes Bay prop will make his Chiefs debut tonight against the Blues.

It will be "little and large" on his side of the scrum as 110kg Blues loosehead Tom McCartney tries to manage the seemingly immovable bulk.

One thing McCartney has, though, is nous and the ability to make the most of his comparatively small frame.

Tameifuna, listed in the media guide as 134kg but evidently 4kg heavier, is as green as grass, having played only sparingly at NPC level for the Bay.

Even Dave Rennie would admit that nowhere in the season masterplan was the possibility that Tameifuna would be blooded so early.

Needs must. When 127kg Ben Afeaki's forearm smashed four minutes into the opening match against the Highlanders, the Chiefs were shorn of their big presence on the tighthead side of the scrum.

When the highly regarded Toby Smith followed him to the sick bay with a calf strain, Rennie's front-row stocks were running dangerously thin, if that's a term that could ever be used for props.

Loosehead Arizona Taumalolo, Tameifuna's uncle, will start against Charlie Faumuina and his nephew got the nod ahead of Taranaki's Shane Cleaver, whose ability to cover both sides of the scrum has put him into the reserves.

Tameifuna's coach at Hawkes Bay, Peter Russell, believes he had the right skill-set to succeed at Super 15 level, despite his inexperience.

Russell said his reluctance to play Tameifuna regularly had nothing to do with the New Zealand under-20 rep's game.

"It was more to do with the experience we had in Sona and Anthony Perenise," he said.

"We wanted to get as much out of those guys as possible before they went to the World Cup [for Tonga and Samoa].

"That's really the only reason. Ben was mostly on our bench through the competition, but he knew he was next cab off the rank.

"He went from strength to strength and played a tremendous final."

Hawkes Bay won promotion to the top ITM Cup tier after beating Manawatu in the final of the "bottom seven".

If he has an Achilles heel, it has been summoning up the work ethic required to get his fitness right, "but I think he's been working pretty hard there under Tom [Coventry] and Rens".

Russell believed Tameifuna's weight was probably too high to allow him to consistently last the distance, but when he got that right he'd be close to the complete prop.

"He's a brilliant ball player," he said. "He's strong, he's quick and is mobile. He's got all the attributes."

Partly through necessity, partly through a need to fix the base of the scrum, Rennie has made four changes to his pack to face the Blues.

Tameifuna will be joined by experienced hooker Mahonri Schwalger in the front row, and while Tanerau Latimer and Kane Thompson come in for Sam Cane and Fritz Lee respectively.

The Chiefs were not happy with some of the control they were getting from the base of the scrum and hope a more experienced backrow will remedy some of those issues.