Olds key to Eketahuna?s title hopes

Inspirational captain Steve Olds has been given a 50-50 chance of being part of the Eketahuna team gunning for their third successive Wairarapa-Bush senior first division rugby title at Memorial Park, Masterton on Saturday.
Olds suffered a badly cut knee in his side's draw with Marist in the last of the preliminary round matches a fortnight ago and was on the sidelines when Eketahuna struggled to a 12-11 victory over Greytown-Tuhirangi in their semi-final encounter at Eketahuna on Saturday.
That win, sealed by a converted try in the last minute of play, kept Eketahuna's hopes of a "three-peat" alive and coach Graeme Cheetham is hopeful of back rower Olds adding something to the forward effort in the grand final against Gladstone this weekend.
"We certainly want him to play and I'd say he was 50-50 of doing so," Cheetham said of his skipper yesterday. "The injury seems to be making good progress and Steve himself is keen to be there so we're keeping our fingers crossed."
Cheetham readily concedes that Eketahuna's form has taken a turn for the worse over recent weeks, although the form book would, of course, suggest otherwise with only two defeats having been suffered by the Bush-based side in the last two seasons.
"We haven't been anywhere near as consistent as we would like," he said. "We've been going in fits and starts and while the results have generally been in our favour we haven't played the quality of rugby we'll need to produce to win a final. We've got to lift our effort, no doubt about that."
Cheetham is confident, however, that the opportunity to win three successive titles won't be lost on his players and they will be determined to come up with something special on Saturday.
"We had a talk after the semi and the message was that now we had made the final we had to get our act together and play some good rugby," he said. "The enthusiasm is where it needs to be and it's just a matter of getting it right on the day."
While his side has beaten Gladstone in both of their meetings so far this season, Cheetham is anticipating a closely-fought competition decider, and is especially mindful of the strength of the Gladstone loose forwards and the attacking potential they have in their backs.
"They (Gladstone) seem to be playing their best rugby at the right part of the season and we're expecting them to put up a huge fight," he said. "We understand we will probably be seen as the favourites, but that's not the way we're looking at it as a team. It's going to be tough and we know it."
Tactically, Eketahuna are keen to gain some ascendancy up front as well as demonstrate the attacking skills of their backs.
"We would like to think it will be a dry track so we can spread the ball more than we did in the semi," he said. "Our backs have shown they can create and score tries and we want to give them every chance to do that."
Most of those players are likely to be available again in 2006 but not so their coach with Cheetham saying he was "fairly certain" this coming weekend would be his swansong in that role.
It will be the fourth time in his five years in charge of Eketahuna that they have made it through to the final and he considers "enough is enough".
"I think it's time for someone else to step in and take over, I've had a pretty good innings," he said.
Gladstone seem sure to be without talented flanker Rob Dick for Saturday's final. He suffered a serious shoulder injury in their 13-10 extra time semi-final win over Marist last weekend and coach Dave Drummond gives him little, or no chance, of being part of the action.
But while Dick's absence will be felt Gladstone have the luxury of having a glut of proven loosies with the likely starting trio, Daimon Neal, captain Steve Wilkinson and Sam Henderson, all being current Wairarapa-Bush reps.
Injuries have, in fact, been a bane for Gladstone through most of the season but Drummond was delighted to report that apart from Dick he had everybody on deck for Saturday
"I think we've only had the last three games where injuries haven't been a hassle so it's bit unreal to be in the position we are in now," he said.
Drummond is aware Eketahuna are likely to target the tight forwards as an area in which they could have the edge on Gladstone but said his own team had a "few ideas" on how they could cope with that challenge. "We might even put 13 players in the scrums to even things up" he quipped. "And perhaps play three-man lineouts all game."
Like his coaching counterpart Cheetham, Drummond is hopeful of dry weather and a firm surface for the grand final.
"We have some good young backs and it would be a shame if they can't show what they're made of," he said.
Drummond hopes too that being the underdogs will in Gladstone's favour with a good portion of what should be a large-sized crowd likely to be in their corner.
"Players can feed off the support they get from the sidelines so the more it goes our way there the better," he said.