Its business as usual for coach Tantrum

It is business as usual for Wairarapa-Bush rugby coach Kelvin Tantrum.
The cancellation of yesterday's non-championship with Manawatu because of a spate of injuries and unavailabilities won't signal any lull in training for the Wairarapa-Bush squad despite their next match being another "friendly" against fellow Heartland championship side Poverty Bay in Masterton on Saturday, August 9.
Tantrum said practice sessions would continue at least once a week with the only break being over the fortnight at which the semi-finals and finals of the senior first division club competition would be played.
Prompting Tantrum to keep his players in regular training is the fact he and assistant coach Mike Robinson were given very little opportunity to judge their all-round capabilities in the two non-championship games already played, the 98-0 loss to a Wellington XV and the 77-0 loss to a Hawke's Bay XV.
In both those matches they had plenty of chances to demonstrate their tackling skills against bigger, faster and fitter opposition but very few to demonstrate their worth on attack.
"We did have attacking strategies in place but we just didn't get anywhere near enough front foot ball to test them out," Tantrum said. "So we still don't know a lot about the potential of many of the players in that area, hardly anything at all."
But while he wants to give current squad members the opportunity to rectify that situation Tantrum said he and Robinson still had an "open door" selection policy with club form being carefully assessed in that regard.
"We still have some way to go before the actual Heartland team is named so basically every club player is still in the mix," he said. "No one is guaranteed a starting place yet, that's the way players need to think."
Two players who have been introduced into the Wairarapa-Bush squad in recent times are Puketoi utility forward Jared Bambry and Pioneer flanker Lee Ewe.
Bambry was actually part of last year's Heartland team and after a slow start to this season has been in fine form on the club scene over the past month or so while youngster Ewe a son of former New Zealand rugby league rep Dave Ewe who was still playing for Pioneer himself last season has also made a big impression with his strong running and equally assertive defence.
Coach Tantrum is also hopeful that the three "imports" he will use in the Heartland games will be on hand for the match against a Poverty Bay team which will have already had the benefit of a Ranfurly Shield challenge.
As yet there is no confirmation of who those "imports" will be but Tantrum said members of his management team were talking to a few possible signings with the aim of having things in order within the next two to three weeks.
"Ideally we would like to have them on deck for the Poverty Bay game, that's the timeframe we are working on," he said.
Asked whether he had identified any particular areas where "imports" could strengthen the Wairarapa-Bush squad, Tantrum said the loss of Eketahuna lock Dan Griffin with a knee injury left a "pretty big hole" in the middle row and that extra pace could be valuable in the outside backs.
"It all boils down to who we can get though, we are only interested in players who have the skills and desire to do a decent job for us," he said.