Onus put on East Coast forwards

East Coast are wanting their forwards to take more responsibility as they seek to win the Chris Kapene Memorial Cup for the first time by beating Martinborough in their Wairarapa-Bush premier division rugby match at Whareama tomorrow.
It has been the pace and flair of the East Coast backs which has been the main catalyst to them opening up a four-point advantage over Masterton Red Star at the top of the competition table.
This has put them into a position where victory tomorrow will guarantee them the Kapene Cup, which goes to the leading team at the end of one complete round of premier division matches.
East Coast coach John Pereira believes if East Coast are to go all the way and win not only the Kapene Cup but also successfully defend the premier division championship title they won in 2008 their forwards need to be more consistent.
"We've been a bit up and down in the forwards and it's time for them to take more responsibility," he said. "Consistency is what we want from them."
Pereira would seem justified in thinking Martinborough will have a fair old crack at achieving superiority up front tomorrow.
Their coach Trevor Hawkins is an astute reader of the game and he will know that taking East Coast on in the backs would very probably bring little reward.
In Jared Hawkins Martinborough have arguably the most in-form loosie around and they have the physical presence in their front and middle rows to make a big nuisance of themselves in the set pieces as well.
The test for East Coast will be to quickly dampen the fire in the Martinborough pack by adopting an aggressive attitude themselves and players like Willie Leota, Ross Thompson, Joe Feast and T.K. Karaitiana have the skills and bulk to meet that challenge in a positive vein.
There is no doubt that if East Coast break even in the forward exchanges they will call the tune in the backs although the possible loss of midfielder Sam Mitchell with injury is a blow. He is one of those under-rated players who can generally be relied on to do the right thing at the right time and nicely complements the skills of the inside combination of halfback Luke McKenna and first-five Zeb Aporo.
Prediction-wise an East Coast win is clearly the logical way to go but it may not be as comfortable as the form book would suggest.
Masterton Red Star still have an outside chance of grabbing the Kapene Cup if they beat Puketoi at Pongaroa and East Coast trip up against Martinborough. The former result appears a foregone conclusion when you consider Puketoi have yet to break their "duck" for this season and Masterton Red Star will be fielding very close to a full strength side.
No such certainty exists over the other three premier division games tomorrow though & Marist v Gladstone at Memorial Park, Eketahuna v Carterton at Eketahuna and Greytown v Pioneer at Greytown. They should all go down to the wire.
It will be a big day for the Eketahuna club with past and present members expected to turn out in large numbers to watch their women's side taking on Old Boys University in a Wellington competition match at 11.30am, their senior reserves playing Carterton at 1pm and the premier division game also with Carterton kicking off at 2.30pm.
The Eketahuna women's side are coming off the back of two good wins and are now well placed to make the top-six play-offs later in the season.
They will be tested tomorrow, however, as not only are Old Boys University a formidable team but Eketahuna will be missing inspirational skipper Perri Tatana, who is sidelined with a dislocated shoulder.