Marist must make do without Couch

An unfortunate clash of dates means Marist will be without star midfield back Nathan Couch when they play East Coast in the grand final of the Wairarapa-Bush senior first division rugby competition at Memorial Park, Masterton on Saturday.
Instead Couch will be the only player from the Wellington region in the New Zealand Police team which will meet their Australian counterparts in the curtain-raiser to the All Blacks v Australia Bledisloe Cup match at Eden Park, Auckland on the same day.
Couch, who has been a regular in Wairarapa-Bush sides over the past decade, was part of the Marist teams which won successive first division titles in 1997, 1998 and 1999, said he was "very disappointed" to be missing the club final but Marist's involvement there was not known when he was asked to make himself available for New Zealand Police about six weeks ago
"If I had known we would make the final things might have been different but nothing was certain then," Couch said. "They (Police) needed to get flights and accommodation sorted out so they couldn't wait around to see what might happen."
Couch, who will play at second-five, is expecting the Australian police side to give their Kiwi counterparts much sterner opposition than they did a year ago when New Zealand won by a massive 77-0. "They will still be hurting after that one and we're expecting them to really fire up this time," he said.
As for Marist, Couch is adamant his absence won't stop them from going one better than last year when they lost 14-6 to Gladstone in the first division decider. He has been impressed with the progress they have made in recent weeks although he admits to being a little concerned that the huge effort put into their 8-6 semi-final win over the 2007 champions at Gladstone last Saturday could actually work against them on Saturday.
"The build-up to that game was a bit like a final for us and hopefully the boys can repeat that sort of intensity for a second week running," Couch said. "We know East Coast will throw everything at us so it won't be easy, that's for sure."
Marist coach Sid Tatana believes there is no chance of Marist being complacent despite the fact they have already beaten East Coast twice this season.
He recalled both those games as being closely-contested with Marist taking well until into the last quarter to seal victory.
"Their forwards have probably been the strongest pack we have come up against all season and we know that's where they will be targeting us again," Tatana said of East Coast. "We might have a bit more spark in the backs but you have to get the ball to make the most of that, don't you?"
Having said that, however, Tatana is very definitely not amongst the school who thinks that if Marist have a weakness it is their lack of skill and aggression in the ball-winning areas up front.
"Quite frankly , if anybody looks over the whole season they will find that it has been the forwards who have been the success story for us," he said. "Yes, we do have backs who are capable of anything but we haven't seen the best of them yet, not by a long way."
Tatana reckons that if the Marist forwards are in the same frame of mind as they were against Gladstone in the semi-finals they will cope with the tenacity of their East Coast opposites.
"I think most people thought we would be come off second best in the forwards that day but we more than held our own," he said. "The forwards set up that win, no doubt about that."
As for the Marist backs Tatana described them as being a "mixed bag", sometimes good, sometimes ordinary. "Potentially we can offer a lot more there, we haven't really clicked as a unit as often as we would like."
What has pleased the Marist coach though is that the younger and less experienced of this season's Marist squad have stood up and been counted & players like lock James Goodger, utility back Murray Gleeson and wing Jareth Fox.
"The enthusiasm these young fellows have is amazing and it's a big positive for those around them, they can feed off it." Tatana said.
So can Marist go one better than last year on this occasion? Coach Tatana is "very optimistic" they can but is quick to add the rider that it will take a totally committed effort for them to do so. "Finals can do strange things to players but if we handle the pressure OK we there's no reason why we can't do the business," he said.