There will be no rest for Wanganui rugby captain Denning Tyrell in this Heartland Championship rugby campaign.
Despite the return of the previously unavailable Josh Edwards to join Ruapehu's inexperienced Ricky Alabaster as halfback back-up in the squad, Steelform Wanganui coach Milton Haig has pushed aside any suggestion that Tyrell should
have a break in favour of Alabaster in Saturday's Poverty Bay match before the important second round matches start.
Haig has taken teams to Poverty Bay twice and lost both times.
"We want to win this match ? I haven't won in Gisborne." To that end, Haig says Tyrell will play on Saturday ? and will continue to do so, injury permitting.
""It's all about accumulating points so that when you get to the next round you have enough padding to be able to afford to drop a match," Haig said.
That might be a better time to give key players a rest, he hinted.
"But we're not talking about resting our captain ? he's too important for us. He's our leader, he's instrumental in what we want to achieve, if injuries happen, they happen. You can't stop there.
"And there's no softly-softly this weekend ? we want to win this game. I want to make sure we come away from there with four points at least.
"It's all about creating momentum, and we want to make sure we can keep that brand of rugby up, and build confidence going into the next round."
Edwards, who has been spending time with his mother in Sydney after the recent death of his father, will return to training tomorrow night. "He won't be No 2, because Ricky Alabaster's No 2, but we've always wanted to carry three halfbacks in case of injuries, and now we can do that.
"But he's clearly got a lot of ground to make up."
Only inside back Steelie Koro (flu), outside back Amini Niukula (stomach upset) and Paul Belliss (minor AC joint strain) missed training last night.
