'I'm not available,' - Couch

Experienced midfield back Nathan Couch has decided not to make himself available for Wairarapa-Bush's 2007 Heartland championship rugby campaign.
Couch, who plays for the Marist club, has had more than 50 games for the union and was a key member of the Wairarapa-Bush side which won the Heartland title last year, and the NPC third division title the year before.
His outstanding form last season saw him rewarded with selection in the national Heartland side which undertook a brief tour of Argentina.
Doubts over Couch playing for Wairarapa-Bush in 2007 arose when fitness issues saw him unavailable for the first three non-championship games against Wellington, Hawke's Bay and Manawatu.
However, in an interview with the Times-Age he expressed the keenness to continue his representative career once his fitness reached the required standards, but he has since told Graham Cheetham and Lofty Stevenson that he won't available at any part of this season.
Cheetham made no secret of his disappointment at the news, saying that Couch's versatility and experience would have been a huge plus for a Wairarapa-Bush squad missing many of last season's players.
"He would have brought a lot to the team, not only experience but his ability to play well in so many positions," he said.
Couch will, however, be one of a handful of local players expected to turn out for the New Zealand Police in a practise game against the All Blacks World Cup squad in Christchurch next week.
Couch, his Marist teammate Jaco Pieterse and Dave Drummond of Gladstone were all prominent when New Zealand Police walloped their Australian counterparts a few weeks back and seem sure to be retained for the All Blacks fixture.
Meanwhile, hopes still linger that another Marist stalwart in Patrick Rimene will make himself available for Wairarapa-Bush this season .
Like Couch, fitness hassles have persuaded Rimene to keep himself out of the reckoning for the non-championship games played thus far but his consistently good club form for Marist in recent weeks has suggested they may no longer be an issue.
Without Rimene, Cheetham and Stevenson have struggled to find a player capable of filling the crucial first-five role with the competence required at Heartland level and they would undoubtedly welcome him back into the fold with considerable enthusiasm.
Cheetham revealed, in fact, that with Rimene's availability uncertain some thought had been given to looking outside the Wairarapa-Bush for a skilled first-five. Preliminary talks to that end had been held with a player now playing his club rugby in Manawatu but who formerly played in the Wairarapa-Bush area.
"Whoever we have at first-five has to be able to run the show, and right now the depth we have there isn't too flash," Cheetham said.
Reflecting on the Poverty Bay game, championship points may not be at stake there but the result will still be of huge importance to Wairarapa-Bush as it will be the first time this season they have come up against opposition who play in the Heartland competition and, consequently, should be of similar strength to them.
And, of course, it will also represent the final dress rehearsal before they take on West Coast in the 2007 Heartland opener at Memorial park, Masterton on August 18.
The Coasters have given Wairarapa-Bush a headache or two in the reecnt past but one would imagine that if the local side is to have any chance of successfully defending the Heartland title they will have to dispose off them, and comfortably at that.