Whanganui Metro rugby in great heart for new season

St Johns Club Whanganui Metro looked sharp beating Southern in Hawera in a pre-season match up two weeks ago.

St Johns Club Whanganui Metro will enter its third season in the Manawatu Colts division with a group of new players, but that is proof the concept is working.

The team was originally set up to bridge the gap between schoolboy and club rugby in a bid to retain teenagers in the game.

This season Metro has six new players after four from last year left to join clubs, while two were now too old to meet the colts division criteria.

With the nucleous of the team intact, co-coaches Darryl Malcolm and Carl Gibson still have plenty to work with to continue the good fight in the Manawatu grade.

"We have six new guys, including young Desmond Tyrell, son former Samoan international and 89-Wanganui rep cap Denning Tyrell. Desmond is a midfield back who has just left school at Collegiate," Malcolm said.

"We lost a couple of key players including flanker and captain George Forster and we also lost our regular fullback and a prop, but we have new guys to mould into our brand of rugby. It's too early to say just yet, but we'd hope to be just as competitive as we have been."

Team culture is a key element of Metro's success and has helped the side finish third on debut in the colt division two years ago and then when narrowly beaten in last year's final against perenial winners Massey White.

"The first few games this season, whicj kicks off in a fortnight, will be interesting. The Manawatu union has programmed the first three matches to be played on Friday nights to help with player availability. A lot of these young guys have work commitments on Saturdays," Malcolm said.

As a lead in to the 2018 season Metro took on Taranaki side Southern winning 17-14 in Hawera a fortnight ago, but it wasn't so much about the score.

"It gave us an idea of where we are at pre-season and we were looking good," Malcolm said.