Cheetham returning to old Eketahuna pastures

Graeme Cheetham is returning to old pastures in the 2009 rugby season.
The man who was controversially axed as coach of the Wairarapa-Bush senior A side last year after taking them to the semi-finals of the 2007 Heartland championship has been appointed coach of the Eketahuna club's premier team.
But Cheetham is not taking any bets on having the same he did through the early 2000s when he was at the helm of an Eketahuna side which won the Wairarapa-Bush senior first division title three times, and was the beaten finalist on one other occasion.
"Right now we are in a rebuilding phase and it's hard to say how we will go," Cheetham said yesterday when asked to assess Eketahuna's prospects in the coming season. "I wouldn't like to make any rash predictions other than we're aiming to be competitive in every game".
Cheetham said the indication from Eketahuna's first training run last week was that while they would be well off numbers-wise for forwards it was a very different story in the backs.
"The backs situation is a bit of a worry, we are not too well off in that regard," he said.
"Anybody who wants to try out for us is more than welcome, that's for sure.".
Cheetham remains puzzled as to the reasons why the Wairarapa-Bush union failed to give him a second term as their senior A coach.
"They've never really spelt out to me why I missed out, I'm still pretty much in the dark as far as that goes," he said.
Disappointed as he still is at his dumping Cheetham retains a hankering to coach again at Heartland championship, although he admits to a feeling that some of the current union personnel would need to go before there was any chance of that happening.
"There's two or three who won't have me & I think they've made that pretty clear," he said.
"But, yes, it would be great to get back there again sometime, it's a challenge I really enjoyed."