Canterbury great raises Marlborough's hopes

Marlborough are all pumped up for their Ranfurly Shield challenge against Canterbury in Blenheim today.

The home side go into the match buoyed by the simple fact they have coach Alex Wyllie on their side.

Wyllie coached Canterbury during their last great shield era in the 1980s, a factor not lost on Canterbury coaches Aussie McLean and Ian Mallard.

McLean said Canterbury had named their strongest available team, and they were treating this season's first defence with the respect it deserved.

"As I've said to a number of people, when you mention Marlborough, the Ranfurly Shield and Grizz Wyllie in the same breath, it's a formidable combination," McLean said.

"We respect the traditions of the shield. We respect the people involved in the game and we respect the province of Marlborough in a huge way."

McLean said that although a build-up without any matches had not been ideal, his squad had come a long way in a short time together.

When Canterbury originally named their squad, it seemed as if they were vulnerable because of the appearance of 11 new caps.

But they are not about to be caught unprepared as they were back in 1973, when they lost the shield to Marlborough in Christchurch - and have called in the big artillery in the form of All Blacks squad members Sam Broomhall, Daryl Gibson and Ben Blair.

The addition of this trio means there are now seven members of the Crusaders squad starting today. The others are former All Blacks prop Greg Feek, openside flanker Johnny Leo'o, centre Nathan Mauger and winger Joe Maddock.

Among the new caps for Canterbury is fullback/wing Scott Hamilton, who may get to line up against his brother, Marlborough fullback Dallas Hamilton.

Wyllie will not have mixed emotions going into the game. He took on the Marlborough job this year to help promote rugby in the smaller regions and he is expecting his team to give everything against the first division side.

"Games against Southland and Otago have helped a lot as far as experience against first division sides goes, but there's a hell of a gap and it's very hard for teams like us to compete against the top two or three sides."

- NZPA