About six of them came on immediately, followed by two more a few minutes later and the rest soon after, and this fresh “bomb squad” had the identical youth and stamina as their starting XV, leaving Whanganui feeling their physicality on the carries and now scrambling to keep up with the rapid transfers to the wings.
Hawke’s Bay winger CJ Mienie was the willing recipient, dashing through for a superb second-half hat-trick and four tries total, while big No 8 Tom Brock was rewarded for a good game by driving over off a 5m scrum to put his side ahead 31-21 with six minutes remaining.
But despite being worn down and seemingly out of it after constant tackling for most of the second half, Whanganui still had a couple of cards left to play.
Winger Harry Symes pounced on another Hawke’s Bay backline spread to run off and score immediately, giving Whanganui time to force an equaliser.
After standout first-five Te Atawhai Mason succeeded with a signature chip kick and re-gather behind the defensive line, multiple players handled the ball for centre Shaun O’Leary to duck tackles in the corner and reach out to score his double with a minute remaining.
Playing without midfielder Ethan Robinson and halfback Daniel Kauika with leg injuries, Whanganui made other alterations to the side which played the Classics.
Try-scoring hooker Matt Picard packed down with a new starting front row in Ross McDonald and Tai Pulemagafa, before handing over to youngster Atriane Marino, who was joined by veteran prop Renato Tikoisolomone for his first Whanganui match since 2023.
In the absence of the injured Peter Travis Hay-Horton, Matt Ashworth as senior lock delivered a very strong shift, including the 5m lineout take which saw Piccard dive over to score off the rolling maul.
Skipper Doug Horrocks, who half-dragged his fellow flanker Jamie Hughes over the tryline to open the scoring, along with halfback Cody Mitchell, set very clear communication lines.
O’Leary’s ability to beat fast-approaching cover tacklers close to the line for his tries was impressive while, despite not being a regular club goal-kicker this season, Mason slotted three from five.
After previously facing test legends who had all the crafty tricks, coach Jason Hamlin was pleased his side had gone hard against athletic young men who, while more rudimentary, had deep petrol tanks.
“They’re all contracted, those guys that came on, but that probably shows you.
“That first half we were playing quick, playing on top of them, doing the things we’re trying to get to.
“Although we still got burned a few times when we probably had numbers to defend it but we didn’t communicate well enough – some bodies came in when they didn’t need to and could have held the edge a little bit longer.
“Really happy for them, because they can see some tangible results out of what we’ve been doing, and for 30 minutes of the second half we just defended, and it still took [Hawke’s Bay] until the 70th minute to get ahead of us, and then we were able to bite two back, which is just gold.”
What Hawke’s Bay’s shift change heading into the fourth quarter proved to Whanganui is just how important it will be to effectively use their reserves during the Heartland Championship.
“We’ve got some strike and ability to play some footy – that last try, there’s backs and forwards flipping the ball left, right and centre,” said Hamlin.
“But we’ve got to be able to give us a point to start from, so some of that set play is going to be a real key for us.”
Whanganui 31 (S O’Leary 2, J Hughes, M Picard, H Symes tries; T Mason 3 con) drew with Hawke’s Bay Development 31 (C Mienie 4, T Brock tries; W Cole 3 con). HT: 14-7 Whanganui.
