Lennox wary of old rivals

Wanganui rugby coach Guy Lennox was happy North Otago didn't make the Meads Cup, but cautious about Mid Canterbury, the "old rival" of the past two seasons whom Wanganui has to meet in Ashburton in the playoff round of the Heartland Rugby Championship.

Steelform Wanganui earnt the top qualifying place in the Meads Cup with its 33-9 win over West Coast at Cooks Gardens on Saturday. It meets the three qualifying teams from pool B in this round, starting with bottom-placed South Canterbury in Wanganui.

Then comes the battle away from home with Mid Canterbury, finishing with a math against Pool B winner Poverty Bay in Wanganui on October 17.

Wanganui has limited knowledge about South Canterbury because they haven't met in the past two seasons, but Mid Canterbury has been a constant worry – and met champion Wanganui in last year's Meads Cup final.

"They're going to be dangerous. They were the finalists last year and they've got the same team," Lennox said.

But a keen amateur selector in the competitions available to all, Lennox says he's had an eye on Saturday's opponent South Canterbury from the start of the season.

"I thought they would be in it after their pre-season form and I took them to beat North Otago in the first round," Lennox says.

A large Southland B lock was added to the South Canterbury squad last week, and their goalkicker is Kane Wahlstrom from Auckland.

"They're pretty handy," Lennox said.

Both Lennox and captain for the day Denning Tyrell were keen on the future prospects of last Saturday's changed Wanganui backline – basically the swap between Asaeli Tikoirotuma at fullback and midfielder Fraser Middleton, with Vance Pereka giving size to second-five.


"I thought it was better," Lennox said. "Tiks was quite creative and made good tackles. He's got great skills. I thought he played very well.

"They've got some potential."

Overall?

"I saw some very positive things because West Coast were a much better team than most people would give them credit for – we played some b….. good rugby in the first half and had nothing to show for it.

"We didn't have the ball for the first 20 minutes, but when we did and created those opportunities, they scrambled very well. But we were guilty of pushing 50/50 passes rather than showing patience on attack.

"It's a 'we gotta score now' thing, which is inexperience. But at the end of the day there was some very good rugby. We're starting to show signs of getting it together."