Wairarapa-Bush rugby coach Kelvin Tantrum is ''gutted'' that his team's non-championship rugby match with Wanganui, scheduled to be played under lights at Eketahuna on July 7, has been called off.
Tantrum and his assistant coach, Neil Foote, had named an extended training squad of 27 players to prepare for a fixture
which was arranged after Tantrum was approached by Wanganui officials to see if Wairarapa-Bush would play them as part of Wanganui's Ranfurly Shield challenge preparations.
For Tantrum and Foote, the request was timely as they were keen to try out several players with an eye to seeing which of them had the physical and mental capabilities to make the grade at Heartland championship level. And with Wanganui having won that title for the past two seasons, there could be no better opponent in that respect.
But all that came to nothing late last week when Tantrum was advised Wanganui would not be making the trip to Eketahuna, ostensibly because many of their players could not get time off work.
A reason made to look somewhat strange when it was discovered they had now organised to play a Manawatu XV on the same day in a match starting mid-afternoon.
''I was gutted to hear the game was cancelled. We were really looking forward to giving so many of our players the chance to show their skills against quality opposition,'' Tantrum said yesterday.
''In that sense it was going to be a very important match but now we are back to square one.''
The loss of the Wanganui fixture means Tantrum and Foote have to revisit plans to have their Heartland team named before they play three non-championship games in August, against Horowhenua-Kapiti at Shannon on August 7, Poverty Bay at Masterton on August 14 and Wellington Samoans at Wellington on August 21.
This has forced them to use at least the Horowhenua-Kapiti match as a final trial. ''We are certainly going to be one step behind where we wanted to be,'' Tantrum said.
