Russell demands total player commitment

Hawke's Bay won't be judging the success of their non-championship rugby match with Wairarapa-Bush at Napier next Monday on the final scoreline.
Coach Peter Russell has had a squad of more than 40 players in training since early January and while he accepts a comfortable win should be in the offing for his Air NZ Cup championship side his interest will centre more on performance, both individually and collectively.
Russell, who was appointed Bay coach after taking Wairarapa-Bush to the NPC third division title in 2005 and the Heartland title last season, said the warm-up games like that against Poverty Bay tomorrow and Wairarapa-Bush next Monday were in effect trials for those players pressing for Air NZ Cup selection.
"We've told the players just how important these games are to their futures so we're expecting them to give it their best shots," Russell said. "It's not so much a matter of winning, but how they win.
"We want them to show us they can perform well as individuals without adversely affecting the team concept."
Russell sees it important too that his players get into the habit of starting strongly, and keeping the foot on the pedal for the full 80 minutes.
This is because every single game in the Air NZ Cup will be a major assignment for them and they need to have the fitness and the mental capability to sustain a peak effort no matter what the scoreline.
"They will be playing in a competition where any lapses of concentration and focus will very probably mean points on the board to their opposition and we need to get that situation right before the serious action starts," he said.
Russell was "very surprised" to learn that only a handful of last season's Heartland-championship winning team have currently made themselves available for Wairarapa-Bush this season.
He had never anticipated the drop-out rate being so high, a situation made even more difficult to understand because Wairarapa-Bush had been so heavily represented in the national Heartland side which toured Argentina last year and the players therefore had a good understanding of the levels they could aspire to.
At the same time though Russell was adamant that unless players were totally committed to playing for their union they couldn't - or shouldn't - expect selection "on their terms".
"Everything points to the Heartland competition being even more competitive than it was last year?some teams have been training since November," Russell said. "Players who haven't done the hard yards will struggle, that's for sure."
Meanwhile, the Wairarapa-Bush squad to play Hawke's Bay won't be named until later in the week.
Co-coach Graeme Cheetham said yesterday a number of prospective players were still battling injury and their fitness needed to be assessed before their availability was confirmed.
Among them are three of the union's star players from last season in centre Simanu Simanu, lock Tomasi Kedarabuka and hooker Joe Harwood while wing Lauvi Lima, who looked a useful attacking proposition in the match with a Wellington XV last week was injured in a club game on Saturday.
Cheetham said Simanu and Lima were on the "very doubtful" list but hopes were high that Kedarabuka would be part of the action. Not so Harwood though. His shoulder injury will probably sideline him for another month or so.
Lima's likely absence will almost certainly mean that at least one additional outside back will be drafted into the Wairarapa-Bush squad and the inside running there could be held by Pioneer's Jordan Fox or Gladstone's Angus Crisp, both of whom have been performing well at club level.