Wairarapa to go under scrutiny

It won't only be their own fans who will have Wairarapa-Bush under the microscope in their NPC third division rugby match with Horowhenua-Kapiti at Memorial Park, Masterton, tomorrow.
Most pundits around the country had Wairarapa-Bush as a firm favourite for at least a semi-final berth in this year's competition, so their shock 29-24 loss to usual cellar dwellers Buller in the opening series of matches last weekend caught them pretty much unawares.
And the rumblings about their possible vulnerability will grow to a crescendo, if they fail to produce the goods against Horowhenua-Kapiti as well.
That Wairarapa-Bush will produce an improved performance tomorrow is a virtual certainty, as it's impossible to imagine them repeating the errors of last weekend when up to half a dozen tries were "bombed" through basic mistakes.
But then again they would need to improve drastically to cope with a Horowhenua-Kapiti side whose own confidence would have been boosted by their narrow victory over King Country seven days previous.
Pre-match speculation before the Buller match was all about the domination expected to be achieved by Wairarapa-Bush up front.
It was anticipated they would have too much firepower for Buller in the set pieces and would completely outgun them in the loose.
In reality though the Wairarapa-Bush forwards failed to perform anywhere near expectations with the upshot being that coach Peter Russell was moved to make two personnel and one positional change to the starting line-up for tomorrow's game.
Into the front row comes 20-year-old South African prop Ashley Wells, skipper Mike Robinson moves from blindside flank to the middle row and Sam Henderson slots into the vacant flanker's berth.
Russell is optimistic the changes will help Wairarapa-Bush cope better with what is a very experienced Horowhenua-Kapiti pack, seven of whom have been part of their NPc squad for the past five years.
He knows the visitors will be placing considerable emphasis on controlling the forward exchanges, and sees the ruggedness of players like Wells, Robinson and Henderson being invaluable as his Wairarapa-Bush squad prepares to fight with fire.
It is difficult to escape the feeling that the set piece components of scrum and lineout will go a long way towards deciding the fate of this particular game.
Horowhenua-Kapiti utilised their expertise in these crucial ball winning departments to telling effect against King Country and you don't need to be a rocket scientist to realise the importance they will be placing on having similar success against Wairarapa-Bush there.
For Wells , especially, tomorrow's game can be labelled a baptism of fire. Not enough has been seen of him yet on the local scene to fairly rate either his scrummaging skills or his value in a lifting role at lineout time, and he can expect Horowhenua-Kapiti to target him as a possible weakness in those areas.
Coach Russell is confident, however, that Wells will rise to the occasion. He was impressed with what he saw of him off the reserve bench in the Buller game and considers his youthful enthusiam could have a positive influence on the rest of the Wairarapa-Bush forwards. Time will tell.
With Robinson replacing the taller Corey Reid at lock it could be debated that Wairarapa-Bush has weakened ball-winning capacity at lineout time, but then again Robinson is a wily character who knows all the tricks of the trade, and is sure to use them.
With their backline lacking anything like the experience of their forwards Horowhenua-Kapiti's tactics will likely revolve around keeping the ball close to their pack.
Wairarapa-Bush, on the other hand., will want to give talented attackers like midfielders Nathan Couch and Simanu Simanu and their equally gifted back three, Esava Teko, Jorgi Tamani and Bart Viguurs, every opportunity to show their paces.
They have the potential to cut Horowhenua-Kapiti to ribbons, but they will have to show more composure and structure their performance than they did against Buller, where all too often they broke the advantage line only to mess things up as the goalline beckoned.
The full Wairarapa-Bush squad is: Bart Viguurs; Esava Teko, Simanu Simanu, Nathan couch, Jorji Tamani; Patrick Rimene; James Bruce; Sylvanus Iro; Sam Henderson, Tomasi Kedarabuka, Mike Robinson, Daimon Neal; Dylan Higgison, Rob Foreman, Ashley Wells. Reserves: Charlie Bargh, Tommy Harmon, Marika Tau,Richard Carroll, Ritchie McDonald, Logan Ili, Corey Reid, Joe Harwood.
Spectators at the NPC game will be entertained during the halftime break by a goal kicking competition which will feature the winners of knockout rounds at nine local schools.
And beforehand they will be able to watch the Wairarapa-Bush senior Bs in action against their Horowhenua-Kapiti counterparts.
A number of the B players are very much on the fringes of promotion to the A squad, and if the latter fail to front up satisfactorily later in the day who knows how many of them could get their chance to perform on a higher stage.