Bush steel for Cup bid

Wairarapa-Bush rugby coach Kelvin Tantrum says his team will be "fired up" for their crucial Lochore Cup Heartland championship rugby match with King Country at Memorial Park, Masterton on Saturday.
Nobody has been more frustrated than Tantrum at Wairarapa-Bush's mixed form in Heartland games this season, but he is optimistic that with Lochore Cup survival at stake this weekend the hassles of the past will spur them to a noteworthy performance.
"You don't need to tell the players or the coaching staff how important this game is ... we all know damn well that a loss could be the end of it for us," Tantrum said. "We don't want to be depending on other results to survive, winning is all we are thinking about. We'll be fired up, don't worry about that."
For victory to be achieved over a King Country side buoyed by their position at the top of the Lochore Cup points table after their impressive 44-5 thumping of Buller last weekend, Wairarapa-Bush will need to rid themselves of an annoying trend, which baffles Tantrum.
In most of their Heartland matches Wairarapa-Bush have been more than competitive, apart from a 10 to 15-minute period where they have slackened off and the opposition have run in enough tries to secure an advantage.
"Honestly, I can't put my finger on why that happens but, yes, it's been happening far too often," Tantrum said. "Everybody is aware of it, but for some reason it keeps cropping up. I'd love to know why."
As often occurs when teams are struggling to consistently play to their best form, rumours of player dissatisfaction with game plans and selection policies have surfaced but Tantrum is adamant they have no foundation.
"Anybody who thinks otherwise only has to come to training and see how hard everybody is working. I have absolutely no concerns in that regard," he said. "And there's no problem with team spirit either, the enthusiasm is as good as you would ever want it to be."
The inconsistency has, of course, brought a dwindling in public support and Tantrum understands that to be part of the territory when expectations are not being met.
"It's the old story of everybody liking a winner and, let's be fair, we haven't be doing enough of that," he said.
"But we do have a band of people who have stuck with us all season and we are very grateful to have them on board."
Wairarapa-Bush are going into the King Country match on the back of a 31-17 loss to Horowhenua-Kapiti at Levin Domain last Saturday, a performance which Tantrum reckons was at least a few notches up from their disappointing defeat to West Coast the weekend before.
"Against West Coast there were a lot of aspects to our game which were well below what they should have been, but last weekend it was more a case of simply being beaten by a better team on the day," he said. "They [Horowhenua-Kapiti] were desperate for the win and their defence was amazing, if anything that was the main key to their win. As hard as we tried we couldn't break them open."
Tantrum doesn't see any major changes being made to the playing personnel or the game plan for the match against a King Country side which seems to be placing more emphasis on attack than usually anticipated from teams from "Pinetree" Meads country.
In the mercurial Tanner Vili they have a midfield back who can wreak havoc when allowed time and space in which to work, but while Tantrum admits keeping him in check will be important for Wairarapa-Bush, he is more intent in seeing his side concentrate on their own game rather than worry about the individual skills of opposition players.
"For us it's all about doing the business up front and making good decisions with the ball we obtain as well as playing flat out for the full 80 minutes," he said.
"Do that and there's no reason why we shouldn't get a good result, it really is that simple."
While the Wairarapa-Bush starting line-up won't be confirmed until tomorrow morning, indications are the same squad which travelled to Levin will be retained with the exception of midfielder Sam Mitchell who is not available for family reasons. His place will probably be taken by "loan player" Cyrus Baker.