Fallen Stars

Masterton Red Star have withdrawn from the Wairarapa-Bush Rugby Union's senior first division competition which kicks off next weekend.
A shortage of players had placed their survival in the premier league in grave jeopardy for the last month and president Tim Nathan said yesterday the stage had been reached when withdrawl was the only viable option open to them.
"We simply didn't have enough players to make a first division team possible, we had no alternative but to pull the plug ," he said.
"As a committee we did everything possible to keep the team going but it's reached the stage where a decision had to be made and , unfortunately, there was only one way to go."
Nathan said a combination of cirumstances were behind the current situation, including many of last season's first division squad either joining other clubs or moving out of the region.
"We've had a big drop out from last season and replacements have been hard to find," he said. "It's not that we haven't tried but the players just don't seem to be there."
Not helping the cause either has been the unusually large fall-out of players from the Masterton Red Star colts team which won their Wairarapa-Bush competition last year as well as finishing runners-up in the Wellington under-19 competition.
Normally many of those players would be promoted to the seniors first the following season but very few were available to Masterton Red Star in 2008 for much the same reasons as for the senior firsts.
In fact, the club will not even field a colts team this season, leaving their senior thirds as the only Masterton Red Star team playing afternoon rugby.
Nathan is adamant, however, that Masterton Red Star's defection from the premier grade will last just the one season as it did when a player shortage created the same hassles for them in the early 2000's.
"It's not the end of us in the senior first division competition, we will be back bigger and better than ever," he promised.
The two Wairarapa-Bush representatives in last season's Masterton Red Star senior firsts, wing Lemi Lauvi and utility back Heemi Tupaea have joined other clubs.
Lauvi will play for an East Coast side being coached by former Masterton Red Star stalwart John Periera in association with a past Wairarapa-Bush NPC coach in Ritchie Robertson while Tupaea has linked up with defending champions Gladstone.
The Masterton Red Star withdrawal will, of course, lead to a rejig of the draw for senior first division matches in 2008.
Not only will there now be a bye but ground changes will need to be made to ensure first division games are still played on a regular basis at the union's Memorial Park headquarters.
But that's not the only headache currently confronting the Wairarapa-Bush union as Times-Age inquiries suggest some grounds-especially those in the country areas- could be out of use for the opening round of matches because of the long spell of warm weather making them rock hard, and consequently a risk to the safety of players.