Eketahuna women enter unchartered territory

Eketahuna will be entering unchartered territory when they play Oriental-Rongotai in a Wellington premier division women's rugby match in Wellington tomorrow.
The game will mark Eketahuna's debut in the capital-based competition and coach Cory Miller admits they have little knowledge of the quality of opposition they will meet there. However, he has little doubts it will be more formidable than that experienced in the Manawatu premier grade in which Eketahuna finished runners-up in 2008. A sentiment supported by numbers with the Wellington competition featuring 11 teams and Manawatu's just four.
Miller said the attraction of playing a wider variety of teams was a major reason for Eketahuna's shift to Wellington along with frustration at some organisational aspects of the Manawatu competition.
"We see it as a positive move for the players, and that's the big plus," Miller said. "It's an exciting development for women's rugby here."
Further good news for Eketahuna is they have retained the bulk of last year's squad and gained a couple of valuable acquisitions in Jenny Roberts and Raylene Reiri. Roberts, from Blenheim, is a blindside flanker with size and speed while Reiri is a lock with height and athleticism.
They will join a pack which will include two Manawatu NPC players from last season in Perri Tatana and Emma Aldsworth while stars in the backline are Black Fern Rebecca Hull, Shakira Baker and former New Zealand women's soccer rep Michele Clarke.
Coach Miller says the Eketahuna game plan will be the same as that of last year when the focus was on moving the ball quickly away from the set pieces and relying on their mobility to take the steam out of their opponents.
"We are not a big team size-wise but we are quick and that's what we have use to our advantage," he said. "We can create tries from anywhere, and so the greater the movement of the ball the better for us."
Kick off for tomorrow's game is 11.30am but when Eketahuna play at home they will have a 1pm start.
Most of their home games will obviously be scheduled for Eketahuna but Cory Miller is hopeful they will have at least one programmed for Memorial Park in Masterton. "Playing at rugby's headquarters here would be a big thrill for us," he said.
Meanwhile, Masterton Red Star will be shooting for a hat-trick of wins when they meet Marist in a Wairarapa-Bush premier division men's rugby match at Memorial Park tomorrow. Victories over Martinborough and Greytown have already made Masterton Red Star's return to the top league after a season's absence a successful one but they can expect stern opposition from a mainly young Marist side keen to bounce back quickly from last weekend's hefty defeat at the hands of East Coast.
Marist's tactical approach will be interesting. Normally they would be expected to place the emphasis on attack but it would be no surprise see to see coach Nathan Couch having them adopt a more conservative stance on this occasion. Reason for that is that in the likes of Jordan Watene, Byron Karaitiana and Hemi Tupaea Masterton Red Star have backs capable of calling the tune if the game becomes a free-flowing affair.
Looking to dominate the forward exchanges is therefore the logical starting point for Marist and in Terry Norman, James Goodger, Joe Nuku, Anthony Balks and Geordie Waldron they have enough talent up front to make that a plausible objective.
And in promising Kahu Matenga and Patrick Rimene they have inside backs with a sound enough kicking game to keep their pack on the front foot. Masterton Red Star will, however, have taken heart from their solid scrummaging against Greytown last Saturday, an area in which Tim Hintz was a star performer, and in Tyrone McTavish they have one of the more accomplished lineout forwards in the region.
Puketoi and Pioneer will both be looking to break their "ducks" in their encounter at Pongaroa and this could have similarities to the Memorial Park match with Puketoi aiming to greatly lessen the likely impact of the Pioneer backs by depriving them of much in the way of quality ball. Martinborough and Greytown should have a battle royal at Martinborough .The home team will be looking to build on their good win over Eketahuna last Saturday and Greytown aiming to secure a victory after narrow losses to both Carterton and Masterton Red Star. Both teams do like to move the ball around so an entertaining match is in prospect.
Gladstone and Carterton are unbeaten this season and that will add to the interest in their encounter at Gladstone. Both sides don't mind the rough-and-tumble stuff up front with Gladstone probably fancying their chances of having an edge in the scrums and Carterton likewise in the lineouts. There is an even enough look about the two backlines too so a close match seems assured.
East Coast have started their season impressively with two big wins and they will be expected to make it three from three when they host Eketahuna at Whareama. Eketahuna will probably make a decent go of it in the forwards but could struggle to combat the attacking flair of the East Coast backs.