Wairarapa Bush all out

Wairarapa-Bush are going for broke in their Heartland championship rugby match with Wanganui at Cooks Garden, Wanganui, tomorrow.

Head coach Mark Rutene says his side will be playing the same expansive style of rugby that produced their first win of the season, a 47-10 thumping of Horowhenua-Kapiti at Carterton last weekend.

Up against a Wanganui squad that had wrapped 70 points around Horowhenua-Kapiti the weekend before and is one of the favourites for Meads Cup spoils, Rutene knows the standard of opposition will be significantly higher but he sees no reason to change tack.

"We want to have a decent crack. We want to go out there and throw everything at them," he said. "We won't be holding anything back."

Rutene is confident in the ability of the Wairarapa-Bush forwards to match up to the much-vaunted Wanganui pack in the battle for possession, and with good reason.

The scrum has hardly taken a backward step all season, the lineout has improved markedly in recent times, they have enough ball runners to make a positive impact in broken play and loosies Joss Tua-Davidson, James Goodger and Johan Van Vliet are in grand form, individually and as a combination.

There is though one area in which Wairarapa-Bush may have to tighten their approach and that is in the mauls. Wanganui are very strong in that department and it is from there they tend to launch many of their most potent attacking ploys.

It will be vital to the Wairarapa-Bush cause that they operate as a unit in that phase, rather than rely on just a handful of forwards to do the donkey work, something of which they have been guilty from time to time. Even against Horowhenua-Kapiti, for instance, there were occasions when "tighties" were seen hanging around the fringes rather than applying the old adage of "head down and bum up".

The Wairarapa-Bush backs produced their best display of the season last weekend and tomorrow's game gives them the perfect opportunity to prove that was due more to their own improvement than the weaknesses of their opposition.

Certainly Wanganui will be more organised than Horowhenua-Kapiti on defence and you can wager they'll be a heck of a lot quicker and inventive on attack as well.

Without the elusiveness of the nippy Nick Olson on the wing, Wairarapa-Bush will have to look more to midfielders Sam Mitchell and Michael Vuicikau to provide the initial thrust and for Olson's replacement, Heemi Tupaea, Jesse McGilvary and Trent Vatselias to take full toll of any space provided for them.

In fact, it promises to be a busy day for Mitchell and Vuicikau as they will be expected to show the way defensively too. Both are capable of making big hits and the more the merrier here.

The likely Wairarapa-Bush line-up is: Trent Vatselias; Heemi Tupaea, Michael Vuicikau, Sam Mitchell, Jesse McGilvary; Zeb Aporo; Matt O'Connor; Joss Tua-Davidson; Johan Van Vliet, Andrew McLean, Dan Griffin, James Goodger; Brendan Walker, Jake Tupene, Kurt Simmonds. Reserves: Brandon Young, Wilba Davies, Lee Ewe, Rupene Tamani, Campbell Lawrence, Inia Katia, Tommy Harmon, Tipene Haira.