Heartland honours bestowed on locals

Carterton hooker Joe Harwood was "stoked" to be named as captain of the New Zealand Heartland rugby team for the second successive year.
Harwood led the national side on a brief tour of Argentina last year and he has been retained as skipper again despite being replaced by Mike Spence in the leadership role for Wairarapa-Bush's 2007 Heartland campaign.
Not that he will actually get to lead them in battle as the NZRFU did not organise any matches for them this year.
"There was talk about a tour of Canada but obviously it didn't come off," Harwood said. "It's disappointing not to have a game or two but just being selected is a big buzz anyway."
Harwood's 2007 season was plagued to a degree by injury with a shoulder problem sidelining the front rower for something like six weeks. However, he managed to recover in time to play a full part in Wairarapa-Bush's Heartland programme and was "pretty pleased" with his form there.
Typically though Harwood is more inclined to talk about the team effort than his own performances, saying that the young and largely inexperienced Wairarapa-Bush side had developed well under new coaches Graham Cheetham and Lofty Stevenson.
"I'd say most people thought we had little or no show of winning the Meads Cup again so to make the semis was really satisfying," he said. "We had a good spirit and a good culture and that counted for a lot."
Harwood was especially impressed by the progress made by many of the younger members of the Wairarapa-Bush squad and is adamant the lessons learnt in 2007 would be of great value in 2008.
"It would be great to think they will all be back for another crack, they will be just so much wiser next time round," he said. "There's a lot of talent there and the best hasn't been seen of it yet."
Ever the diplomat, Harwood did not want to become publicly involved in discussions as to who should coach the Wairarapa-Bush Heartland side next season but he was obviously impressed by what Cheetham (who is standing again) and Stevenson (who is off to Germany) achieved in their debut year.
"You'd have to say things are heading in the right direction and hopefully that will continue," he said, adding that he personally had every intention of being available for Wairarapa-Bush next season. "The body is still a bit sore but I'm certainly keen to play again," he said.
Also making the national Heartland side for the second successive year was Eketahuna's Hamish McKenzie who was named as the reserve halfback. He is currently in North Otago where his family resides and is unsure as whether he will play for Wairarapa-Bush in 2008, admitting yesterday he would probably not arrive at a decision until early in the New Year . "It comes down to job opportunities really, rugby doesn't pay the bill," he said.
Like Harwood, McKenzie was delighted with the performance of the Wairarapa-Bush team last season although frustrated that they didn't make it to the final.
"I still think we were good enough to get there but didn't play well enough when it mattered, that was the only disappointment really," he said.
"But a lot of that came down to experience, we didn't have a lot of that."
McKenzie makes no secret of his support as Graham Cheetham as the next head coach.
And that was not only because of the team's development last season and his respect for Cheetham's own coaching abilities but because of a perception that any change would give the wrong messages.
"We hear a lot of talk about focusing on local players and I think we should be giving local coaches the same encouragement," McKenzie said.
"And anyway he (Cheetham) did a good enough job to deserve another go, it's hard to see any reason why he wouldn't be there again."
McKenzie and Manawatu "import" John Dodd were the regular inside back combination for Wairarapa-Bush last season but Dodd will be playing his club rugby in Auckland next season and is an unlikely starter for Wairarapa-Bush as a consequence.
There has been talk too of other leading Wairarapa-Bush players being sought by other provinces, including star utility back Simanu Simanu who would not be out of place in the premier league, the Air NZ Cup competition.