The grunt work?s already started

Wairarapa-Bush will have done the hard yards in more ways than one by the time they challenge Canterbury for rugby's most coveted trophy, the Ranfurly Shield, in Christchurch on July 11.
Not only are 21 players already involved in intensive training programmes organised for them by the Wairarapa-Bush management team but the lead-in to the Shield match will involve matches against three teams who will be contesting the inaugural NPC premier division competition in 2006, Wellington, Hawke's Bay and Manawatu.
Wairarapa-Bush coach Peter Russell said no stone was being left unturned to have his side primed and ready for the Christchurch experience, and for the NPC first division games which would follow.
"Shield challenges don't come along very often for unions like ours and we want to ensure we make a decent fist of it," he said.
"Obviously we accept we'll be going down there as the rank underdogs but the aim is to be competitive, and that's what we are working towards."
Russell believes too that that quality of rugby in the NPC first division series will be far more testing than it was in the third division competition which Wairarapa-Bush won for the first time last season.
For instance he anticipates the size of the packs to be somewhat bulkier and to this end many of the bigger men in the Wairarapa-Bush squad are on training schedules which should see them increase their muscle mass by several kilograms.
Russell said it would be important too that the judgement calls made on the field of play were more precise and accurate
"There were times last season when our option taking was pretty ordinary but we got away with it because the opposition was no better than us in that respect," he said.
"We're going to have to be a lot smarter this time round and that goes for everyone, tight forwards as well as inside backs."
Russell is delighted at the number of new faces in the playing ranks on the current Wairarapa-Bush scene and expects some of them to be strongly in the reckoning for places in the representative squad as the 2006 season gets into full swing.
"From what we have seen or heard there are some very talented players amongst them and that has to bode well for us," he said.
"The more competition we get for places in the rep side the better and when you've got depth it means things like injuries can be easier to take.The early signs are we should be pretty well off in that regard".
One of the latest arrivals in the Wairarapa-Bush area is a South African prop who has been attending the Mexted Rugby Academy in Wellington.
He will apparently play for Carterton while a hooker from the English rugby academy is said to have signed up with Gladstone.
Two of last season's NPC third division-winning squad in halfback James Bruce and prop Dylan Higgison are on rehabilitation from injuries, Bruce from a groin problem and Higgison from a suspected broken foot.
Also on the recovery trail are talented Carterton loose forward Brodie Duffin, who snapped his achilles last season and a former Manawatu loosie in Mike Spence who had a broken ankle. He will be playing for Gladstone in 2006.