WHS primed for derby upset

There will be little love lost between two old rivals today when the Wanganui High School First XV tackle Collegiate in a local secondary school derby.

With the Wanganui Collegiate side honing in on a top four spot in the North Island Secondary Schools Championship, and back from a successful three-match holiday tour of Australia, there may be a perception they will be too strong for the WHS lads.

However, WHS coach Darryl Malcolm is having none of that and predicts his boys will foot it with the Collegiate XV.

"We have had two weeks off since playing Massey while the Collegiate side has had its trip to Australia - that could be a factor, but our boys are primed and ready," Malcolm said yesterday.

"They may have played in a different competition, but we've played some very tough teams too and look likely to make the top four in the Manawatu premier 1 competition. While we'll be going out to win, it will also be a good run for our next game against the strong Tu Toa academy in the Manawatu competition. Tu Toa are no mugs and we only went down by two points when we met them earlier in the season."

Malcolm was confident he had the players to foot it with the Collegiate team.

"This is a local derby and there will always be plenty of rivalry, but it's by no means a gimme for Collegiate."

Meanwhile, Collegiate coach Guy Lennox has got his lads pinging along nicely winning eight of their North Island secondary schools competition games - the last six straight - and two of the three holiday matches in Australia.

"The Australia trip was great experience for the team and while they only got back last Thursday, they're ready to go again against High School," Lennox said. "They are playing pretty good rugby and we can never take them lightly, but we've been up against strong company this season and that may give us an edge."

Collegiate welcome back star players, lock Jonathan Osborne and open-side flanker Te Atuarere Albert who have been in camp with the Hurricanes development squad while their teammates were in Australia.

Today's match kicks off at 1.45pm on the Collegiate No1 ground in Grey St.