“But it’s all a by-product of playing well – a home semifinal is on the line for us, there’s lots of things for us to not take our eyes off the prize about this game.”
Strike weapon and the competition’s leading try-scorer Alekesio Vakarorogo (eight tries) quietly continued the rehab on his sore hamstring at Tuesday night training, while in further good news, captain Jamie Hughes has recovered from his leg injury after being rested for the win over Horowhenua-Kapiti.
“Jamie will be good to go, just an opportunity to give him a bit of a break and let his body recover a little bit more,” said Hamlin.
“If it had been a playoff game last week, he probably would have played.”
Hamlin was also satisfied with the long-awaited comeback of prop Raymond Salu, who scored off the bench in his 35-minute stint in Levin.
“We’ll do some more work this week around Ray.
“We know what type of x-factor he brings with ball in hand, but he’s got to marry that up with his core roles which still have to be done.
“At this stage of the year, teams are pretty unforgiving if you’re not up to scratch, and he is behind the 8-ball, obviously, with not playing for a little period of time.”
The team will be missing dynamic fullback Tyler Rogers-Holden this weekend with a pre-planned commitment, but with the utility value of the likes of Peceli Malanicagi and Ethan Robinson available, the No15 jumper will be well covered.
In fact, Whanganui have enough quality available off their reserves bench, who contributed three tries in Levin, that during the bus ride home a nickname was christened for the group by young lock Ngapuke Patea, and immediately endorsed by Malanicagi and regular reserve prop Kereti Tamou.
“Mob Squad”.
The moniker is in response to undefeated Meads Cup rival South Canterbury’s infamous “Bomb Squad” who have been responsible for so many late-game victories.
“It’s the ‘Mob Squad’ now, is it?” smiled Hamlin.
“It’s quite positive, I quite like that.
“That’s a really nice quality of what we’ve had so far this year – is that the boys are buying into their stuff and putting their own story on it and that’s what you like.
“That’s the sort of thing you want to see out of this young team – [it’s] an experienced team in lots of regards, but still lots of young players in here.
“You take out the Jamie’ and the Danes [Whale], and Gabe [Hakaraia] and Kamipeli [Latu] now, those 80s to 50s [games], there’s a lot of young footballers in terms of Heartland experience between that.”
The same can be said for a rugged King County unit, who have won their last three games to still have an outside chance of overtaking Mid Canterbury to snatch the final Meads Cup semifinal spot.
Hamlin acknowledges the efforts of coach and local legend Aarin Dunster (113 provincial games, 13 NZ Heartland XV games) who over the previous two-and-half seasons has built a core of players with 20-30 games’ worth of experience.
That includes three members of the Dunster family in the starting lineup, with talented lock Cruise Dunster (28 games) having played both for and against the NZ Heartland XV, with the NZ Barbarians.
Hooker Liam Rowlands (43 games) and loose forward Kaleb Foote (25) are also former NZ Heartland XV representatives, while winger Patrick Hedley, on loan from the University of Waikato Club, is the top points scorer for the entire competition with 115 (seven tries, 22 conversions, 12 penalties).
“He’s done a good job with them, put some belief in them, put some good work into them, and they’re really showing that result,” said Hamlin of his opposite coach.
“So they stay in the game and they don’t beat themselves, so there are the things we’ve got to keep working on – not presenting opportunities.
“If we can do that, we can put ourselves in a good place against anybody in this competition.”
Kickoff is 2.30pm.
Butcher Boys don charity jersey
The Steelform Whanganui team will be wearing special charity jerseys for their final round-robin game of the Bunnings Warehouse Heartland Championship at Cooks Gardens on Saturday.
And the public gets the chance to own those 23 player jerseys through online auctions on Trade Me, with the proceeds from each of them again going to the NZ Rugby Foundation.
Established in 1986 by All Black legend Kel Tremain and philanthropist Sir Russell Pettigrew, the Foundation provides financial and emotional support to players at all levels who suffer severe injuries, which will be for life if the injury results in a permanent change of circumstances.
The organisation also provides funds for the study of injury prevention in rugby and advocates for safety measures in the game.
The WRFU first ran a successful online Trademe auction, and in-person auction for an extra jersey at the aftermatch function, in their last regular season game of the 2022 season, which brought in $13,400 for the Foundation.
There will also be a bucket collection at Cooks Gardens on Saturday.
Online bids on the jerseys can be made at this link:
https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/search?member_listing=8344756
