Canterbury wary of primed BoP

Canterbury coach Steve Hansen believes the lure of the Ranfurly Shield and the death of stalwart Joe Tauiwi will have Bay of Plenty primed for a peak performance tonight.

Bay of Plenty meet Canterbury in Christchurch in a fourth-round NPC match which also doubles as a Ranfurly Shield challenge.

"There's two key motivating factors for Bay of Plenty," Hansen said.

"One is the Ranfurly Shield, the other, and even more significant, is the death of Joe Tauiwi. "He's been a big part of Bay of Plenty rugby and they'll come here with extra steel in their back.

"That's something we just have to match."

Tauiwi, a former New Zealand sevens representative, died this week after a long battle with cancer.

Although Bay of Plenty have returned only this year to the top bracket after having second-division status for the last nine seasons, Hansen has a healthy regard for Gordon Tietjens team, who beat Wellington in their opening game of this year's Air New Zealand-sponsored competition and took a bonus point off Auckland.

Three Waikato players well versed in Ranfurly Shield rugby, fullback Damian Karauna, goalkicking first five-eighths Glen Jackson and flanker David Dillon, are valuable acquisitions for Bay of Plenty.

They also have the Ponsonby pair - lock Jason Chandler and midfielder Dale Rasmussen - on loan from Auckland.

Canterbury successfully lifted the shield from Waikato nearly a year ago, and defended it against Otago and Northland last season.

This year they overwhelmed lower division teams, Buller 69-3, South Canterbury 103-0, and Nelson Bays 67-10 in shield games before opening their NPC programme with wins against Northland 26-18 and Southland 37-12.

Canterbury have a reshuffled loose forward trio from that which played against Southland, with Scott Robertson and Richard McCaw replacing Matt Mustchin and Johnny Leo'o, and Sam Broomhall going from No 8 to the blindside flank.

McCaw has played just one previous NPC match, but Hansen has faith in the New Zealand Colts flanker. He had an outstanding second half for Canterbury B last week, scoring one try and setting up another in Canterbury's come-from-behind victory.

"Richie is a player we think a lot of. He's been working really hard," Hansen said.

The Bachop brothers, Graeme and Stephen, formed a regular partnership at halfback and first five-eighth for Canterbury in the late 1980s; now it is the turn of their nephews.

Nathan Mauger and Aaron Mauger will be paired together for the first time as Canterbury's five-eighths. They appeared together for the Crusaders for the first time this year and both have played the last three matches for Canterbury, but they have always been separated by former All Black Daryl Gibson.

Gibson's groin injury, suffered against Southland last Saturday, has ruled the Canterbury co-captain out for at least a month and has brought the brothers closer together.

Matt Sexton and Todd Blackadder do not need reminding of what happened when they last packed down against Bay of Plenty in the first division.

That end-of-season match, in Rotorua in 1991, marked Blackadder's debut for Canterbury and hooker Sexton was also in his first year in the red-and-black colours.

Canterbury, at one stage in the running for the title, fell away in the final weeks. They drew with Hawkes Bay, lost heavily to Auckland, then suffered a record 13-28 loss to a Bay of Plenty team doomed for relegation.

- NZPA