Hawke's Bay to use match as trial run

Hawke's Bay will not be fielding anything near a full strength side in their non-championship rugby match with Wairarapa-Bush at Memorial Park on Queen's Birthday Monday.
Coach Peter Russell revealed yesterday that only three players who were part of the Hawke's Bay team which regularly grabbed the headlines as they made it to the semi-finals of the 2007 Air New Zealand Cup had been pencilled in to make the trip to Masterton.
Rather the bulk of the side would consist of players from the Hawke's Bay senior B or development squads or their rugby academy with the emphasis being on youth rather than experience.
"There won't be a lot of old hands there, it's a good chance for the young guys to stand up and be counted," Russell said, adding that the make-up of the side was largely influenced by the fact his union's 11 Super 14 players were not available for selection and either were their three players in the New Zealand under-20s and their two players in the national sevens squad.
Two players in the Hawke's Bay team will, however, need no introduction to Wairarapa-Bush fans.
Middle rowers Stu Smith and Tyrone McTavish have, in fact, both worn the Wairarapa-Bush jersey at representative level with Smith, who was a huge hit here when he played for the Eketahuna club, having had the last two seasons with Nelson-Bays.
He is now farming in the Bay and next Monday's game will be his 50th first class appearance.
McTavish, a South African, played for Wairarapa-Bush in 2003 when he was a member of the Masterton Red Star club.
While most of the players coming to Masterton will have been in organised training since last November
and will therefore lose nothing on the score of fitness, Russell expects them to be a "bit rusty" as far as combinations are concerned. "We won't have done a lot of work on team patterns so continuity could be a problem, "he said .
As to Wairarapa-Bush Russell-who coached them to success in the NPC third division championship and the Heartland championship in successive years- is reading little into their 98-0 whipping at the hands of a Wellington XV last Tuesday. He watched a tape of that match and said there was enough enthusiasm in the Wairarapa-Bush effort against "very good" opposition to suggest they will benefit immensely with that outing under their belts.
"First up against opposition of that calibre it's always going to be backs to the door stuff and you can't place too
significance on the end result," he said. "From what I saw it wasn't all bad news, it's just a matter of staying positive and sticking to what you think will work for the team later on"
Meanwhile, Wairarapa College maintained their unbeaten record in the Manawatu secondary schoolboys rugby competition with a 37-20 win over Horowhenua College in Levin on Saturday.
A scrappy first half ended with Wairarapa College only 15-12 ahead but they were much quicker to the breakdowns in the second half and utilised their possession to better effect.
Try scorers for Wairarapa College were Cory McFadzean, Jesse McGilvary, Robbie Anderson, Thomas Kainuku and Marshall Kjestrup. Rihi Brown kicked one conversion and one penalty as did Cody Whittaker while Robbie Anderson landed one conversion.
Wairarapa College play Napier Boys High in their annual inter-school fixture at Wairarapa College tomorrow, starting at noon, and on Queen's Birthday Monday they will play Chanel College at Memorial Park in what is an elimination game for the Hurricanes Co-ed Cup tournament later in the season..That particular match will be the curtain-raiser to the Wairarapa-Bush v Hawke's Bay senior representative fixture.