Heartland hang with heavyweights

Dylan Bowater was given the honour of captaining the first Hurricanes Heartland Under 20 team in their debut game against Wellington Under 19 on Saturday.

The inaugural Hurricanes Heartland game was played by a Wanganui-esque lineup which more than held their own in the 26-12 loss to Wellington Under 19's at Massey University on Saturday.

All ten of the Air Chathams Wanganui Under 20's chosen for the 23-man squad to contest the Central Region Shield tournament made the starting XV.

Dylan Bowater captained the side from openside flanker while second-five Ethan Robinson was vice captain.

It was an all-Wanganui front row as hooker Dylan Gallien packed down with props Blade Jones and Shaquille McKay, ahead of lock Hamish Bennett and blindside flanker Chris Breur.

Cameron Davies was the halfback while Harry Symes and Shaquille Waara were the wingers.

Hurricanes Heartland were always going to be underdogs when taking on the tournament's strongest union in their opening game, having only come together during the week.

"They had about seven weeks of prep and we had one day," said team manager Lesley McKenzie.

"We came out a little bit of wide-eyed in the first half. In the second half we had the work rate."

Hurricanes Heartland scored a try in each half, with Symes getting the first try after unleashing his lightning pace to win the kick and chase to the ball.

"His speed was pretty instrumental in a couple of areas, just being able to carry into gaps," said McKenzie.

The other standouts were Bowater and Breur, getting through a tonne of phase and tidy-up work against their more vaunted opposite numbers.

Hurricanes Heartland's next game will be against home team Manawatu Under 19 on Saturday, kickoff 1pm, before finishing the tournament against Hawke's Bay U19 the following week.