Wanganui No 12 Timoci Seruwalu with the ball in the Steelform Wanganui vs Wairarapa-Bush match at Cooks Gardens last Saturday. Photo / Lewis Gardner
After recapturing the Bruce Steel Memorial Cup last weekend, Steelform Wanganui will be hoping for a winning farewell to a frustrating 2020 provincial rugby season with the away scalp of Poverty Bay in a live televised match in Napier on Saturday.
The 2.15pm game, which is a curtain-raiser to Manawatu's Ranfurly Shield challenge against Hawke's Bay at McLean Park, will be screened on Sky Sport 1.
The Butcher Boys, who have won 30 of 39 (one draw) games against Poverty Bay since 1909, including the last 14 on end, will start favourites after a comfortable 29-8 Steel Cup victory over Wairarapa-Bush last weekend.
The four tries to one, 21-point victory - which was the union's 11th Steel Cup success in 13 fixtures since 1976 and preserved an unbeaten home Cup record against the Stags - was sweet revenge for an 18-28 loss in Masterton last year.
It was, however, a disjointed game before a disappointingly small crowd, with the visitors more than holding their own territorially but unable to capitalise on a feast of possession, often running into very solid Wanganui defence.
By comparison the Butcher Boys, who led 17-8 at halftime after playing into the wind, scored points from spasmodic raids and deserved victory, although the winning margin was flattering considering the overall run of play.
Unfortunately for Wanganui the team's top points scorer, fullback Craig Clare - who picked up 14 in the game and took his aggregate for the union to 308 from 30 starts - is not available for the Poverty Bay fixture.
The same applies to fellow NZ Heartland rep and champion Border club halfback Lindsay Horrocks (88 caps), prop Wiremu Cottrell and injured middle-row forward Cade Robinson.
Wanganui and the Bay did not play each other last season when PB qualified for the Lochore Cup semis, despite only winning three games - although the first was an upset 17-15 scalping of defending Meads Cup champions Thames Valley in Paeroa.
The other victories were both at home in Gisborne — 52-38 v Mid Canterbury and 24-20 v neighbours East Coast.
Poverty Bay, however, matched Wanganui's effort of six bonus points to qualify for a Mitre 10 Heartland semi-final.
Up against West Coast the Bay, trailing 14-41, scored three tries within 5 minutes late in the game to finally lose 35-41 in Greymouth.
This year the Bay have lost 46-26 to Wairarapa-Bush in Napier and beaten East Coast twice — 34-31 in Gisborne and 42-16 at Ruatoria.
Included in the PB squad are 50-plus rep cap prop Campbell Chrisp, 40-plus cap No 8 Tamahai Hill, ex-Taranaki and Manawatu flanker Adrian Wyrill, agile hooker Rikki Terekia - who scored five tries last season - 50-plus cap mid fielder Ethan Reeves and 46-plus cap first five Kelvin Smith.
The unions last met at Gisborne in 2018 when Craig Clare scored 16 points, including one of eight tries in a 53-0 victory.
Eight of the winning team are in the squad for Saturday, including try scorers Tyler Rogers-Holden (2) and Dane Whale.
Dual union reps
The Wanganui v Wairarapa-Bush match at Cooks Gardens last weekend brought back reflections on players who represented both unions.
They include 1949 All Black Harrison Rowley and New Zealand trialist Bob Barrell.
Rowley, an energetic Hunterville No 8 who played against Australia in 1949 at Eden Park while the top All Black squad was in South Africa, repped 29 times for Wanganui between 1948-50. He started off at No 8 in the test, won 16-9 by the Wallabies, and switched to the wing because of an injury to Auckland fullback Jack Kelly.
Born in 1924 in Cromwell, Rowley started his rep career with Bush (Mangatainoka club) in 1947, playeing29 times for Wanganui in 1948-50 including a tour win over Canterbury (22-8 in 1948) and home scalps of Otago 5-3 and Auckland 19-10) in 1949.
He was in the 1948 Butcher Boys who went down to Otago 20-3 at Carisbrook in a Ranfurly Shield challenge and in the 1950 side that lost 3-31 to the British Lions at Spriggens Park.
Rowley, who died at Waimate in 1956, also played a game for Wanganui-Taranaki in 1948.
While in Wanganui he played for the North Island in 1949, was an All Black triallist in 1950 and played for New Zealand in 1949. He went on to play for Thames Valley in 1951 and for North Auckland in 1952-53.
Another local All Black triallist, fullback Bob Barrell (1976), played for both Wanganui (139 times between 1963-77) and Wairarapa-Bush (three caps in 1979).
He played 139 games for the Butcher Boys between 1963 and 1977, scoring a union record 980 points, and had three matches for the Stags in 1979 including a 9-0 loss at Spriggens Park when Ray Stafford (Marton OB) scored a try and Morrie Griffin (Utiku OB) kicked a penalty and conversion for the hosts.
Ironically Barrell had played all his local rugby for Marton and Utiku. During his local rep career, Barrell played 15 times against Wairarapa and Bush teams — six against W-B between 1971-77 (three wins and three losses), four versus Wairarapa between 1967-70 (two wins, a draw and a loss) and five against Bush between 1966-70 (four wins and one loss).
The Steel Cup was at stake in four of the fixtures, with Wanganui winning 16-6 at home v W-B in 1977 and losing 18-22 at Pahiatua in 1972 and Wanganui winning in away games in 1970 against both Wairarapa (26-15) and Bush (14-9).
Barrell kicked all the points in a 9-all draw with W-B at Spriggens Park in 1967 and the 15-9 victory at Masterton the following season.
He was at last Saturday's game at Cooks Gardens.
Current Wanganui union life member Danny Anderson, a longtime liaison officer for visiting rep teams to the city who was on duty again last Saturday, has repped at halfback for both Wanganui and Wairarapa.
WRFU president in 1994 and a member of the union's current judicial committee, Anderson played eight games for Wanganui between 1961-65 including coming on for his debut as a replacement in a 6-19 away loss against Bush and playing against Wairarapa in a drawn 6-all match at Spriggens Park in 1964.
While teaching in Wairarapa he played five games for the Stags in 1957, his first against a Fijian team.
Tech COB goal-kicking three-quarter Les Tilley started his rep career in Wanganui, playing 13 matches in 1928-30, and then for Manawhenua (also 1930), King Country (1931-32) and finally Wairarapa (1933-34).
Tilley enjoyed a great 1928 debut season, scoring a try in each of his five rep appearances including a 48-6 home win over Bush and in a narrow 16-20 loss to New South Wales on Spriggens Park, when he kicked two penalties and two conversions in addition to scoring his try.
In 1929, when he started at centre and then moved to the wing, Tilley collected seven tries from seven starts including a hat-trick in a 20-22 loss to visiting Otago and kicking a penalty plus dropped goal in an18-21 home defeat at the hands of Wairarapa.
He played on the wing in his farewell game for the Butcher Boys in a 3-19 opening season loss to the 1930 British Lions before switching to the Manawhenua combined union later that year.
The first player to rep for both Wanganui and Wairarapa was Waverley forward FD McGovern, who was in the local team that sailed to Nelson for a 16-3 win over the hosts in 1899 on the union's first trip to the South Island.
It was McGovern's one and only match for the Butcher Boys after opening his rep career with Wairarapa in 1894-95 and then playing for Taranaki (1897), Manawatu (1898), Wanganui (1899) and Taranaki again in 1900.
Well-travelled utility back Earnest McDonald, who played as a Kaierau halfback in 1903 and as a first five from the Wanganui club in 1904, both against Manawatu, repped for Bush in 1910.
He was the busiest provincial player during his era, also donning the Wellington colours in 1905, Canterbury 1908, Otago in 1909 and 1918 and Auckland in 1914.