East Coast eye upset against NPC rivals

GISBORNE - East Coast may be like lambs heading to the slaughter when they travel south tomorrow to play second division NPC rugby leaders Hawke's Bay, but coach Eli Manuel is maintaining an air of optimism.

"It's the same scenario as last week when we played Counties-Manukau," Manuel said.

"Small unions like ours are always on a hiding to nothing when we play these bigger unions but that won't stop us from going down there believing we can win.

"We held our own for 50 minutes last weekend and the challenge for us is to keep on improving so that when we meet teams of a similar base size as us we can look at picking up points.

"It's no different in the first division, there's a gap between the top teams and the rest, but it doesn't stop the smaller unions from going out each week and competing."

Manuel has gone for experience, making two changes to the side beaten 6-53 by Counties-Manukau.

Tojo Maaka comes in for young winger Daniel Thompson while Graeme Walker replaces centre Fred Monika.

"Hawke's Bay are traditionally strong out wide and Graeme, although he hasn't played a lot of NPC in recent years, is one of our most experienced backs," said Manuel.

"He also has a good kicking game which is an area that we need to improve on.

"Watching the video replay of last week's match you could see the number of silly 50-50 passes we threw and some of that came down to lack of experience.

"What I'd like to see tomorrow is a better kicking game when it's on."

Manuel has also made a couple of changes on the bench with livewire loose forward Paul Symes set to make his comeback from a knee and newcomer Duke Matahiki replacing winger Keith Stevenson.

Manuel said the loss of in-form forward JJ Skipworth with a rib injury had hit the side hard, but added that Skipworth was making good progress and was expected to be fit for next weekend's home game against Wanganui.

* SQUAD

East Coast:
Ben Aiona, Lote Raikabula, Graeme Walker, Marty Lloyd (captain), Tojo Maaka, Ian Logan, Charlie Harrison, Tanginoa Nimo, Pakanui Webb, Matenga Hapi, Horace Lewis, Neil Butler, Tom Kahukiwa/Tainui Forrester, Laman Davies, Adrian Collier.
Reserves: Carlos Battes, Kahukiwa/Forrester, Willie Waitoa, Paul Symes, Fred Monika, Daniel Thompson, Duke Matahiki.

- nzpa