Rugby: Pivot propelled to tame Lions

Ihaia West

Talk about incentives ... Hawke's Bay Magpies rugby first five-eighth Ihaia West has four "biggies" to fire him up in tomorrow night's clash against the Wellington Lions in Napier.

Like his Magpies teammates, in-form pivot West is eager to help the hosts beat their Hurricanes franchise big brothers to secure an ITM Cup Championship home semifinal the following weekend.

After the match, West's 16th first class outing for the Bay, he will be presented with his blazer, recognition of the fact he clocked up 1000 minutes for the side in last week's win against Southland in Invercargill.

"I didn't realise those minutes had crept up on me until I was told after the win against the Stags. It will be pretty cool to receive the blazer at a home game and a win will make it even better," West said before the Magpies training session at McLean Park yesterday.

A 2012 New Zealand Under-20s representative, West, pointed out the Magpies are dedicating tomorrow night's match to the family of Magpies manager Neil Weber. Neil's father Graham, who like his son played halfback for the Magpies, died in Tauranga on Saturday night after watching his grandson and Neil's son and 2011 New Zealand under-20s world champion Brad play in Waikato's win against Bay of Plenty.

"It's a hard time for Neil and his family. We will attend the funeral as a team and then play for Neil's dad on Thursday night," West said.

West and Brad played together in Napier Boys' High School teams and Hawke's Bay age group sides.

"Brad and I had two years together in the Napier Boys' High School 1st XV. He played fullback in 2008 but in 2009 he was my halfback and I enjoyed playing with him. We made the New Zealand Secondary Schools Top Four tournament in '09," West explained.

West's fourth major incentive is to continue to push hard for Super Rugby selection.

"I haven't had any calls yet. I'm in a similar position to Bucky [Magpies centre Richard Buckman] ... the next couple of games are crucial in terms of trying to attract the attention of the Super Rugby coaches," West said.

He agreed if the Magpies can play for 80 minutes like they did for the final 40 in their win against the Stags they will have a good chance of ending the Lions unbeaten run.

"We know the Lions use their big boys to make plenty of carries and bully their opposition. We just have to try and chop them down early," West added.

Graham Weber, who had the nickname Ginna, was 75.

He played more than 20 games for the Magpies from 1956-58.

In the 1958 Rugby Almanack Graham was named as one of the Five Most Promising Players of the Year. Another of the five was future Magpies and All Black legend Kel Tremain.

At the time Graham, who also represented Hawke's Bay in bowls, was labelled as a player of much promise who appeared well equipped to go far in the game with good hands, a lengthy pass and intelligent aptitude towards running from the scrum.

As a coach of the old Napier Marist club's premiers Graham won three Maddison Trophy titles in 1985, '86 and '87.

In addition to the Maddison in 1987 Marist also won the Spillane and Nash cups. During 1990 and '91 Graham was the Magpies assistant coach to Graeme Taylor.

He co-coached the Napier Old Boys Marist premiers with Laurie Kaye in 1992.

Graham's funeral will be held at St Columba's Church in Taradale at 1.30pm today.

By 5pm yesterday 5000 tickets had been sold for the match. Hawke's Bay Rugby Union's commercial manager Jay Campbell is expecting a crowd of 8000.

Magpies head coach Craig Philpott will announce his team tonight. As Lions assistant coach Richard Watt promised yesterday the visitors will be at full strength.