Thompson hopes for third time lucky

Wairarapa-Bush senior B rugby coach Steve Thompson is hoping for third time lucky when his team travels to Fraser Park, Petone tomorrow to take on the Wellington Maori under-23s.
With scheduled matches over the past fortnight against Wanganui Maoris and Poverty Bay B becoming defaults wins to Wairarapa-Bush, Thompson just wants his team to get a game, end of story.
"It's been so frustrating for the players to be all hyped up and ready to go and then having no game to play," he said.
"It's the sort of thing you can do without."
Making the situation worse has been the fact the B's have had some outstanding results this season, including massive 70-point plus wins over their King Country and Horowhenua-Kapiti counterparts, and consequently enthusiasm within the squad is running high.
"There's a good feeling there and it would have been nice to keep the momentum going," Thompson said.
"Now we have to start again but I don't think it will be a problem."
With loose forward Nathan Rolls and skipper and halfback James Bruce promoted into the A's, Thompson has lost a couple of his senior players for tomorrow's game, and their absence has been compounded by the unavailability of in-form No.8 Joe Nuku.
Perhaps the most interesting selection made by Thompson and co-coach Sid Tatana is that of Wairarapa-Bush under-19 representative Nathan Iro at No.8.
He had some fine games for Greytown-Tuhirangi in the premier league on the club scene and plays in similar vein to brother Sylvanus, who was such a key member of last season's Wairarapa-Bush Heartland championship winning side.
The need for more match time sees two of the current A squad in halfback Zeb Aporo and wing Lima Lauvi joining the B's for this particular game and taking over from Bruce as skipper is Gladstone lock Tim Fleming, whose combination with clubmate Wills Clinton-Baker in the middle row has been a huge asset in past matches.
The likely starting line-up for the B's is: Thomas Te Kani; Lima Lauvi, Phil Aporo, Kingi Kaiwai, Tavita Isaac; George Williams; Zeb Aporo; Nathan Iro; Patrick Cassidy, Wills Clinton-Baker, Tim Fleming, Marcus Totman; Willie Leota, Richard Puddy, Lee Paku.
Meanwhile, the Wairarapa-Bush colts will be aiming for glory when they play Wanganui at Levin tomorrow.
The match is the grand final of the B section of the Hurricanes colts competition and with Wairarapa-Bush having beaten Wanganui soundly a fortnight ago they will go in as favourites.
Whichever teams wins the final will then have the right to challenge the bottom-placed team in the A section for promotion to that division in 2008.