We can beat Linton Army, says coach

Eketahuna coach Cory Miller says his team can beat Linton Army in the grand final of the Manawatu women's rugby competition to be played in Palmerston North
on Saturday.
That despite the fact in all previous clashes between the two sides this season Linton Army have emerged triumphant.
Miller's confidence is understandable. After all in their most recent match it took a try in the dying stages for Linton Army to seal victory and two big wins over the powerful Kia Toa side over the past fortnight suggests Eketahuna have improved since then.
It was thought at the time of victory in the first of those games played on their home ground, by 34-20, that Eketahuna was already through to the final.
But any celebrations were cut short when they were told the competition organisers had arranged for semi-finals to be played last weekend, and Eketahuna was to face Kia Toa again, this time on enemy territory.
And threatening to make their task even more difficult were rules which allowed for Kia Toa to bring two big locks from the Bay of Plenty region into their side just for this particular game.
Any worries about Eketahuna not being able to repeat their effort of seven days previous were, however, soon put to rest with a stunning first half effort seeing them lead by a whopping 31-10 at the break.
"We knew we had to move their forwards around and the best way of doing that was constantly spreading the ball wide," Miller said. "We wanted to run them off their feet and that's pretty much the way it went."
The second half was a somewhat different story with weather conditions deteriorating and Eketahuna intent on playing a kicking game based around keeping Kia Toa pinned deep in their own territory. And again everything went according to plan, Eketahuna scoring the only points of that half, a converted try, to win by 38-10.
Lock Andrea Taiaroa had a strong game for Eketahuna up front as did prop Tanya McGregor and hard-working loosies Perri Tatana, Emma Aldworth and Trisanna Campbell while former Black Fern Rebecca Hull and Diamond Pauli were standouts in the backs.
Miller believes the result of Saturday's final will depend on whether Eketahuna can obtain enough quality ball from the forward exchanges to give their backs the chance to take full advantage of their attacking capabilities.
"Give us 50 per cent of possession and we will win, I'm quite confident about that," he said. "We certainly have more try scoring potential than them and we need to ensure that counts."
Making a top notch performance even more important for Eketahuna on Saturday is that the Manawatu NPC women's side will be named after the final with Miller saying up to a dozen of his squad could be in the reckoning for that team.
On the local inter-club rugby front Eketahuna and Puketoi will have most to lose when the final round of preliminary round matches in the Wairarapa-Bush senior first division are played on Saturday. They are the only two of the nine participating teams still to seal places in the quarter-finals which will be played the following weekend.
The draw is:-
SENIOR FIRSTS: Pioneer v Eketahuna, Park Sportsground at 2.45pm (G. Reisima; D.Goodin and M.Brown); Carterton v Puketoi, Carterton at 2.45pm (C.Jefferies; S.O'Gorman and V.Peterson); Greytown v Marist, Greytown at 2.45pm (G.Moorcock; K.Lochhead and T.Lyford); Martinborough v Gladstone, Martinborough at 2.45pm (T.Roseingrave; A.Payne and E.Wallace); East Coast the bye.
SENIOR THIRDS: Marist v Masterton Red Star, Memorial Park at 1pm (G.Hall); Pioneer v Eketahuna, Park Sportsground at 1pm (D.Goodin); Carterton v Featherston, Carterton at 1pm (S O'Gorman); Tuhirangi v Gladstone, Pirinoa at 2.30pm (R.McKay); East Coast bye.
The JAB under-13 representative trial match will be played at Wairarapa College at 9.30pm with V.Peterson as referee.