Taradale had the first-round bye and opened with a big win over Tamatea last Saturday, but McNicol’s not all that flustered about the tough week ahead, saying it’s the same for everyone in the competition, although the only other non-twin cities club, Aotea, will have the bye in that round.
Tech have the bye on Friday, when other games will pit Hastings R&S and Napier OBM at Elwood Park Hastings, Tamatea and Napier Pirate at Bill Mathewson Park, Hastings, and Aotea play their first home game of the season, against Havelock North, in Dannevirke, and Clive face M.A.C at Farndon Park, Clive.
As coaches will have seen from replays available of all games, Central have some try-scoring capability, notably in Fijian wings Kaliova Mocetadra and Jeri Kavekai, who each scored twice against OBM and again against Hastings R&S (Mocetadra twice).
There was also evidence of that on Saturday in lock Joseph Elisha, who intercepted about 10 minutes before half-time to gallop 40 metres to score a try which, when converted, gave Central a commanding 17-3 lead.
There is a bit of history for Central to beat, for in the 35 years since top club rugby in the region went Bay-wide with semifinals and finals in 1988, only one club from outside the twin cities has made the Maddison Trophy semifinals – the 2007 Central side, blocked from going any further in a 6-16 loss to Havelock North, who would play the third of four Maddison Trophy finals in consecutive years.
Taradale are near annual top-four material, but Central have come prepared to step-up, McNicol saying it started with his appointment last year, encouraged by senior player and Hawke’s Bay Magpies captain Tom Parsons, and others such as Magpies extended squad member Frank Lochore.
Some early planning and gathering of players was possible, and into 2023 location suddenly became an advantage, in that being based south of Napier-Hastings allowed pre-season match preparation to the south. Aotea got in two matches, the second against Wellington club Petone.
Meanwhile, twin-cities club pre-match plans fell apart in the wake of Cyclone Gabrielle, meaning warm-up matches, to the north or within the two cities, mainly did not happen.
McNicol says the player numbers have been good – “a hard-working bunch,” he says.
After the one-point loss first-up, he said: “I wasn’t really worried about the result prior to the game. It was just that we improved.”
The first goal is to be in the top six in the Nash Cup, the requirement for contesting the Maddison Trophy championship.
“For the first month,” said McNicol, “we’re in a competition with ourselves.”
