St Johns Club Whanganui Metro will relish being back on home turf at Cooks Gardens on Saturday as they tackle unbeaten Feilding in their Manawatu Colts division clash.
St Johns Club Whanganui Metro will relish being back on home turf at Cooks Gardens on Saturday as they tackle unbeaten Feilding in their Manawatu Colts division clash.
St Johns Club Whanganui Metro remains unbeaten in the Manawatu McDonalds Colts division rugby competition after walloping a depleted Massey White 34-8 at the Kaierau Country Club on Saturday.
Metro came into the McDonalds Saturday competition fresh from winning the Evans Cup in the quickfire Friday night format.
They wontheir first round Saturday match beating Marist old Boys 29-10, before missing games through a bye and the Queen's Birthday Weekend halt to proceedings.
Carl Gibson, who co-coaches Metro alongside Darryl Malcolm, said the two week spell leading up to Saturday's game was not ideal and the first half clearly showed his lads were rusty.
"The two week break clearly affected us in the first half, we were quite rusty," Gibson said.
"However, we found our rhythm in the second half to come away with the win. Chris Ferguson (halfback) and Desmond Tyrell (second five) both scored two tries apiece and our captain and hooker Hamish Broadhead played a very good game leading from the front."
With Massey students in the thick of exams, Massey White were light on numbers of regular players and the reserve bench was not as loaded as normal.
"To be fair they were a bit depleted and didn't field their normal team, so pretty hard to gauge at this stage of the competition. They certainly faced some challenges, particularly on the reserves bench. But a win is a win and were pleased to come away with a bonus point as well."
Metro scored six tries to one and converted two in the 34-8 victory against a side that has completely dominated the Manawatu colts division over the past five years at least.
Gibson was under no illusions Massey White would bounce back once back to full strength.
In the meantime, Feilding was the team to watch and possibly the biggest threat to Metro. Feilding is also unbeaten thrashing Massey White 59-10 in the first match of Saturday competition, Massey Ag 57-15 in game two and newcomers Dannevirke 29-5 at the weekend.
"I think they are certainly the ones to watch this season, especially in their centennial year they will be going all out to win," Gibson said.
"We play Feilding at home on Cooks Gardens this Saturday and we are expecting a tough game."
