You would have to fancy the New Zealand Heartland XV to beat New Zealand Marist in their annual Ian MacRae Cup rugby match to be played in Masterton tomorrow evening, kicking-off at 6pm.
As it's their only dress rehearsal before they play two "tests" against the Australian Barbarians at Levin Domain next Tuesday and Cooks Gardens, Wanganui, next Friday, the incentive, both individually and collectively, for the Heartland squad to register a convincing performance at Memorial Park, will be high. High enough for them to dispose of a Marist side which only had their first training run yesterday afternoon.
History suggests that Marist will be no easy beats. They won the first three of the six clashes the two sides have had and have been competitive in the last three, despite Heartland having prevailed in each of them.
One suspects the tactics of the two sides will be rather different. With an eye to the major assignments confronting them over the next week they will almost certainly place the emphasis on a structured approach with the forwards looking to achieve ascendancy before the backs get to strut their stuff. Marist, on the other hand, will be more likely to look to get the ball away from the set pieces quickly and trust their attacking skills to keep the Heartland defence guessing.
From a strictly local viewpoint, the main interest will revolve around the four Wairarapa-Bush players involved in the action: prop Kurt Simmonds, flanker James Goodger and first-five Tim Priest for the Heartland squad and hooker Henry Wilson for the Marist XV.
