History suggests it will be a tough task for Taihape to defeat Border on their own turf at Dallison Park on Saturday.
There is some heavy statistics that Byfords Readimix Taihape will be looking to overcome on their long 154km journey to Waverley as the Tasman Tanning Premier competition kicks off on Saturday.
The feature match of the opening weekend sees last year's beaten semifinalists pitted against each other, as Taihape will defend the Grand Hotel Challenge Shield they won in the last round of 2018 against regular holders Waverley Harvesting Border.
The shield has changed hands on opening weekend in both the last two years of Premier rugby, while as hard but clean rivals, Taihape and Border have gone 1-1 in their regular season matches as far back as recent memory.
Simply put, the hosting country team always seems to get up against their far travelling opposition from the other side of the union catchment.
"We certainly haven't won in Waverley in my time," said Taihape coach and former first-five Tom Wells, who along with 21 game capped Highlander Glen Horton has taken over the reins this year from 2018's player-coaches Dane Whale and Tremaine Gilbert.
"You'll find out where you are straight away.
"It's a great game to get, we both like to play each other and we both play a good style of rugby."
Taihape have retained most of their regular lineup from the side that won the shield and got back into the Premier playoffs last year after missing out in 2017.
The big addition is talented utility back Tyler Rogers-Holden, who has transferred over from Border and adds his speed and vision alongside quality players in Whale, his brother Luke Whale, and Jaye Flaws.
The front row stocks are strengthened as prop Hadlee Hay-Horton returns after spending last season in Australia, joining Steelform Wanganui squad incumbent Wiremu Cottrell.
Gilbert and Matt Brown will do the hard work in the pack, but one of the great shames is promising young flanker Lennox Shanks, who played for the representative Gain Line XV last year, remains stood down from rugby after the very serious concussion he suffered in June.
Another reason Wells is taking a realistic approach to the toughest away match on Taihape's schedule is he wants to keep players fresh for this new-look 2019 competition, where the Top 6 teams from Round 1 will form Division 1 and the Bottom 2 teams get relegated to the new Division 2.
Last year, Taihape was in a tough six-way dogfight to reach the semifinals, but all those teams were able to have a couple of 'easy' matches during the run against the underperforming Harvey Round Motors Ratana and Settlers Honey Ngamatapouri.
This year, whomever drops out, means for the rest there will be nowhere to hide – tough opponents every week to make the semifinals.
"We're trying to build to that second round," said Wells.
"We've taken a relaxed approach to preseason this year."
He expected there will be a lot of early player rotations with the Bennett's Taihape seniors, who are also defending the Stihl Shop Wanganui Challenge Shield against the Border seniors in the curtain raiser on Saturday.
Border coach Ross Williams, one of only three Premier head coaches returning from last year, along with McCarthy's Transport Ruapehu's Daisy Alabaster and Ratana's Steelie Koro, also had a few of his key players get a hit out with the Border seniors last weekend.
Williams is currently operating with 19 names from the 26 he would like to have, because along with Rogers-Holden moving east, Dylan Pearce and Grayson Tihema have headed to Australia, while lightning winger Harry Symes is out for the season after reconstruction of his ACL following the horrible knee injury playing club sevens in November.
Nonetheless, the loss of Rogers-Holden and Tihema is more than offset by the arrival of Wanganui's incumbent first-five Craig Clare, who wanted to be closer to his family in Whanganui after winning back-to-back Premier titles with Ruapehu.
In addition, 72-game Wanganui rep and the 2011 NZ Heartland Player of the Year Jon Smyth has come back from the Southern club in Hawera to boost the locking department alongside Jack Hodges.
"Jon's only just turned up, but Craig's been here most of the preseason," said Williams.
"They're experienced rugby players that add to the team. But hopefully we can help them too, you're never too old to learn new tricks."
Another big loss is top tryscorer Kaveni Dabenaise has moved up to Northland, leaving the club that sponsored him to come over from Fiji.
Nonetheless, 2018 Wanganui winger Tom Symes is back, while double cricket-rugby representative Nick Harding looks motivated to get back the Heartland spot he lost last year.
Williams has heard about Taihape "allegedly" taking the causal approach to the start of the season, but that doesn't mean his side can relax.
"That doesn't stop them from being any less dangerous. We respect them, big time.
"A lot of guys have other interests, so you're trying to get a bit into them in a short period of time.
"If you're playing well at the start [of the season], you're usually doing well at the end."
In the other opening weekend games, the 2018 Premier champions Ruapehu will host the wooden-spooners Ratana at Rochfort Park, while Dave Hoskin Carriers Marist vs Wanganui Car Centre Kaierau should be a cracking cross-town derby game at Spriggens Park with both teams securing some solid backline talent.
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