No rest for busy Tatana

Perri Tatana will be involved in two very different sporting contests over the next 72 hours.
On Friday night she will be part of the Celtic combination which takes on St Matthews Collegiate in a Wairarapa premier one netball fixture at the Genesis Recreation Centre in Masterton.
And then early on Saturday afternoon she will lead the Eketahuna women's rugby team in their Wellington premier division grand final match against Northern United at Porirua.
So dedicated is the versatile Tatana to her sport she has given little, or no, thought to the possibility of resting herself from the netball so she is guaranteed to be primed and ready for what will be a very testing rugby assignment.
"No, I can fit both in and that's what I'll be doing" she said. "It's been that way for a while now and I don't see any reason to change."
A win to competition favourites Celtic in the netball looks close to a sure thing but Tatana is anticipating a huge battle in the rugby against a Norths team which is unbeaten and has already defeated Eketahuna on two occasions this season.
"It's not unrealistic to say we can win but it's going to take a huge effort to pull it off," she said. "We don't mind being the underdogs though, it means more pressure on them doesn't it?"
Tatana has no doubts Norths will rely on what is the biggest pack in the Wellington competition to batter their Eketahuna counterparts into submission.
"They like to bash and crash and once they get a roll on they can be very hard to stop," she said.
"You have to make the first tackles count against them, that's for sure."
Tatana admits to still wondering about how Eketahuna got past Johnsonville in their semi-final at Eketahuna last weekend, a last-minute try sealing a 15-10 victory.
They had to exist on scraps of possession on that occasion yet a mix of some excellent back play and equally excellent defence got them home.
"I guess it came down to heart and we've always shown plenty of that," she said.
Not surprisingly, Tatana is hopeful Eketahuna will attain more quality ball in the grand final as she has no doubts they have the speed and flair in their backs to give even a team of North's calibre more than a few headaches.
"The backs can win it for us but they can't do anything without the ball. We have to do better in that respect," she said.
News that at least two busloads of supporters - including members of the Eketahuna senior men's and colts teams - will be travelling to Porirua to cheer Eketahuna on was welcomed by Tatana as Norths invariably have strong sideline support at their matches.
"I'm picking it's going to be pretty noisy and I reckon we could win that battle too" she quipped.