Rutene believes the noticeable improvement over the last three weekends, when they had an unlucky loss to Poverty Bay, a big win over Horowhenua-Kapiti and a brave if losing effort against Meads Cup favourites Wanganui, was due, in the main, to a couple of important factors.
One was that the fitness levels which had been an issue for some players earlier on were far less a problem by then, and, secondly, the team - who had 11 new players - had taken time to adjust to the intensity of play required to succeed in the Heartland competition.
"I guess one goes with the other, if the fitness isn't where it should be it makes it hard for the intensity to be up there either," Rutene said.
It was not all gloom and doom for Wairarapa-Bush, though, with the forwards deservedly earning plaudits for the consistency of their performance in the vital ball-winning areas of scrum and lineout.
"I don't think the scrum was bettered all season and we generally managed to win our own lineout ball, we were very solid in those departments."
Pleasing, too, was the emergence of two newcomers to Heartland play in James Goodger and Johan Van Vliet as flankers with the potential to develop into top-liners. Their combination with skipper and No8 Joss Tua-Davidson became increasingly potent and there was a lot to admire, too, about Tua-Davidson's leadership in often difficult circumstances.
The backs had a mixed season, with deficiencies in option-taking and defence seen too often until those last three matches, when they acquitted themselves well. The most consistent performer there was clearly Trent Vatselias, the Wellington-based "import" who was easily the team's most prolific scorer.
Rutene and his assistant coach Steve Thompson have yet to decide whether they will seek a second season in charge, although Rutene says he will "very likely" throw his name in the hat again.
If he gets the nod - and it would be a huge shock if he didn't - he says some things would be done differently next season.
For example, a conditioning programme would be issued to prospective players well before the season began in a bid to enhance fitness levels, and efforts would be made to have at least three warm-up games before the Heartland championship to help build combinations.
They had only one such match this year.
Rutene is also aware players may be needed to be recruited from outside the area to strengthen the squad and he hopes clubs will be pro-active over summer in that respect.
"The ideal would be to actually have these players involved in club rugby here rather than have to bring them in later on ... that way we get a better idea of what they have to offer."
