Rimene, Rolls go head to head

Two of the most influential performers at club level over many seasons will go head to head when Marist and Pioneer open their 2009 Wairarapa-Bush senior first division competition rugby campaigns at Memorial Park, Masterton tomorrow.
Patrick Rimene will call the shots from first-five for Marist while Nathan Rolls will be the key figure in the Pioneer pack.
Rimene is the old head in a Marist backline which is likely to contain interesting new faces in the form of midfielders Danny Blon and Caleb Vitale and other youngsters such as Murray Gleeson, Adam Wichman and Jareth Fox.
And you can safely wager that with one of the district's most innovative backs over the past decade in Nathan Couch now coaching Marist they will be encouraged to use their attacking capabilities to the fullest extent.
Gleeson, particularly, could prove a thorn in the Pioneer defence. He often starred from fullback last season with his penchant for launching counter attacks from deep inside his own territory through a mix of rapid acceleration and tricky footwork.
For the Marist backs to shine, however, it will be important they receive a steady stream of quality possession from their forwards and that's where Rolls promises to be of real nuisance value. He can be a dominating force at lineout time and a dangerous runner with ball in hand and the more he gets into the game the better the chances of Pioneer keeping Marist on the back foot.
Rolls is though not the only talented loosie in the Pioneer line-up with Lee Ewe being an equally punishing runner in broken play.He has always looked Heartland championship material and this could be his year in that respect.
East Coast, the defending champions, travel to Pongaroa to take on Puketoi and while they will start warm favourites they will also be well aware that playing Puketoi at home is seldom a bed of roses.
One suspects the Coasters will be keen to move the ball wide as often as they can so the speed of outside backs such as Luke Shanks and Nick Olson plays a significant part in the end result. Puketoi, on the other hand, won't mind if it becomes more of an arm wrestle up front as that would give the Bambry brothers, Jared and Leighton, and the ever-consistent loosie Evan Small the chance to strut their stuff. Martinborough are at home to a Masterton Red Star squad returning to the first division fold after a season away.
The southerners are said to have a young and largely inexperienced side but with players of the calibre of Jared Hawkins in the forwards and Greg Wilson in the backs to lead the way they should still give a good account of themselves.
Masterton Red Star are coming off two solid wins in pre-season games and will fancy their chances of running Martinborough off their feet if they can obtain enough ball to give potent attackers like Jordan Watene and Hemi Tupaea the opportunity to stretch their legs on a regular basis.
Greytown have lost a number of last season's line-up but they will have the benefit of home advantage when they take on arch rivals Carterton.
This is a match which could revolve around the forward battle with Brett Rudman , Tony Adams and Johnny Avatea heading a Greytown pack and Carterton benefiting from the experience of players such as Tomasi Kedrabuka, Brodie Duffin and Mike Wakefield.
If last season's form counts for anything Gladstone should have little trouble accounting for Eketahuna at Gladstone but Gladstone have lost so many of that squad nothing can be taken for granted. They will, however, be expecting to dominate the lineouts through the combined efforts of Andrew Mclean, John Stevenson and Tim Fleming and the solidity of Paul Bracewell and Russell Thompson in midfield should also be a plus. Eketahuna have Graeme Cheetham back as coach and he will be looking to experienced players like Sully Alsop and Brendon Walker to fire up in the forward exchanges and for midfielder Johnny Guillard to control matters in the backs.
All first division games get under way at 2.45pm excepting for that at Pongaroa which will kick at 2.30pm.