Heartland places still to play for

Head coach Mark Rutene will name his Wairarapa-Bush 2011 Heartland championship rugby squad on Friday.
Rutene and his assistant, Steve Thompson, will spend the next two days mulling over the list of contenders, most of whom were in action in the Wairarapa v Bush sub-unions fixture at Memorial Park on Monday, with "20 to 24" likely to be included in the original selection.
While Rutene would neither confirm nor deny that any "imports" will be among the chosen, he admitted yesterday that while he was delighted with the number of players who had "put their hands up" through solid form over Queen's Birthday weekend there were still a couple of positions providing question marks.
There were also some berths where the list of worthwhile candidates was so extensive that some players who missed out could consider themselves unlucky.
"Yes, it's fair to say we still have some thinking to do," Rutene said yesterday. "Overall, we're pretty happy with where we are at but the discussions over the next 48 hours will be interesting ... very."
The normal practice has been for the Wairarapa-Bush selectors to select their Heartland championship squad after they have played at least a couple of friendlies, but with the representative programme being congested because of the Rugby World Cup, Rutene and Thompson had to make their decisions as early as this week.
That will enable them to have up to five training runs before they take on Poverty Bay at Gisborne and Horowhenua-Kapiti at Masterton in the only non-championship games programmed before the Heartland series gets under way.
A fair guess would be that the positions giving Rutene and Thompson the biggest headaches are hooker and first five-eighth.
Carterton's Joe Harwood and Gladstone's Richard Puddy were the two hookers mainly used last season but both are unavailable this time round and there are no clear-cut favourites.The same could be said of first-five where Byron Karaitiana is out through injury.
Of the hookers on display in Monday's match it was Jake Tipene from Bush who impressed the most, for the accuracy of his lineout throwing and his ruggedness in broken play.
If Tipene is to be selected -and it is understood he is open to the idea - he would come under the "loan player" umbrella because he plays his club rugby for Bush Sports in the Manawatu competition.
Young Pioneer player Tipi Haira made a good impression when he came off the reserve bench on Monday but whether Rutene and Thompson see him as ready to play at the top provincial level remains to be seen.
Also concerning Rutene and Thompson could be the lack of depth at lock, especially with Eketahuna's Daniel Griffin, who had to be a near certainty for selection, injuring a knee early in Monday's game and possibly being out of action for some weeks and Tomasi Kedrabuka no longer being available for rep play.
Their absence leaves Andrew McLean and Brandon Young as "shoo-ins", but who will understudy them is in doubt.
There are no such problems in the loose forward department, though, with up-and-comers James Goodger (named player of the match on Monday), Brock Price, Johan van Vliet and Logan Ewe putting real pressure on the likes of old hands Joss Tua-Davidson, Tommy Sargent, Chris Senior, John McFadzean and Duncan Law.
Goodger has the advantage of versatility in that he can play on both flanks, No 8 and lock, and is also a handy goal kicker.
At halfback, the choice for Rutene and Thompson will be whether they want the liveliness and cheek of Inia Katia, the youthful promise of Matt O'Connor or the reliability of Zeb Aporo, or maybe look to Bush Sports for another "loan player" in Jordan Bennett-Davis, who looked the sharpest of them all on Monday.
In the three-quarters too there are several prospects, including relative newcomers to the province in Michael Vuicikau and Dan Porter, Jesse McGilvary, Heemi Tupaea, Lance Stevenson, Mata Mataitini and Charlie Brown.