RUGBY: Lafaele may be asked to stop Gear

SHANE HURNDELL
Hawke's Bay Magpie Heydin Lafaele will go into "rewind mode" as he prepares for his midfield tussle with All Black Rico Gear in Saturday's NPC rugby final against Nelson Bays in Napier.
Although Kelt Capital Magpies coach Brendon Ratcliffe has yet to announce his team for the McLean Park final he has indicated Lafaele, 24, will feature in the midfield battle.
"We don't really want to let on whether we'll be using a man-on defensive system or a one-out one," Ratcliffe said in an attempt to keep the defending champions in suspense.
"Obviously, if it's one-out then Davis (regular Magpies second five-eighth Davis Norman) will be dealing more with Rico than Heydin," Ratcliffe said.
Lafaele, who will be playing his eighth match for the Magpies, agreed the midfield tussle will be "interesting". "It will be my first time up against Rico but I've marked Tana before," Lafaele said, referring to All Black captain Tana Umaga.
That was in 2001 when Hastings Boys' High School product Lafaele was in his first season of premier club rugby in Wellington for Tawa and was up against Umaga's Petone side. "Training has been awesome this week and the boys are eager for redemption after our shaky semifinal win last weekend," he said.
While there will be plenty of interest in how the backs cope with Nelson Bays' midfield kingpin it's no secret the battle of the front rows will have the most impact on the game's outcome. The Magpies won't lack experience there. Regular loosehead prop Clint Newland will make his 53rd consecutive NPC match for the Magpies, equalling the record set by fellow prop Orcades Crawford in 1999.
"That's an achievement I didn't know about ... yeah, not too bad," Newland said today while shoving heavy machinery around on the Poukawa station where he works.
Newland, 25, has had several battles with experienced Nelson Bays captain Gavin Briggs during his 60 NPC games for the Magpies.
"We want to prove we can play better than last week," he said, referring to the Bay's 15-11 semifinal win against North Otago.
The last NPC match Newland missed was the Magpies' October 7 2000 clash against Mid Canterbury at McLean Park. His Napier Pirate Rugby and Sports team-mate and Magpies hooker Danny Logan will make his 50th NPC appearance in Saturday's final. His first 16 NPC appearances were for Wanganui during the 2000-2001 seasons.