Mooloo lean on the quiet grafters

Nathan Whiteand fellow prop Craig West have quietly ensured that Waikato's scrum is a solid platform. Picture / Sarah Ivey

At the start of the 2002 season, two Waikato props had their first taste of provincial rugby.

Craig West made his debut against Hawkes Bay in a pre-season game. Nathan White came off the bench the same day for his first appearance.

Fast-forward four years and the pair have attained unsung-hero status in Waikato's march to the Air New Zealand Cup final against Wellington in Hamilton tomorrow night.

Loosehead prop West had one other game, against North Harbour the following year, before disappearing off the radar until this season.

White, at 25 a year younger than his front-row chum, had six games in 2004, seven last year and had a taste of Super 14 rugby with the Chiefs this year.

The tighthead prop has started 10 of Waikato's 11 games, and was a substitute in the other; West has run out for eight, and come off the bench once.

In a team where names like Sitiveni Sivivatu, Richard Kahui, Liam Messam and Marty Holah have been headline-grabbers, the two front-rowers have ensured one area Waikato's rivals viewed as iffy has been rock solid.

West was outstanding against former All Black Campbell Johnstone in the brilliant round-three win over Canterbury; White has been as reliable as cement as the scrum cornerstone.

"Both have done a fantastic job," Waikato coach Warren Gatland said yesterday.

And they've given Gatland ammunition for his conviction that props don't mature until their late 20s. When he returned from England last year he asked about the pair.

"The answer I got was they'd been tried a couple of years earlier and hadn't made it. My attitude was they're still babies. Just because someone has been tried in their early 20s and haven't quite been ready, you shouldn't write them off."

It backs Gatland's view that New Zealand rugby has done a reverse on its tight forwards. Time was, when Gatland was making his way into the All Blacks in the second half of the 1980s, the best front five forwards invariably had several years on the clock.

Now players are often pushed in before they've done a full apprenticeship.

"You can't coach experience, and with guys in tight forward positions I personally don't expect them to be at their best until they're 27, 28 or 29," Gatland added.

West and White have added ball-carrying to their basic grunt work at set pieces and Gatland is delighted with what they have achieved.

"There's a few people looking from the outside and scratching their heads, and saying, 'Why have they gone so well? Why are they in the final?'

"And it's partly because guys like Craig and Nathan have just gone about their job and done the basics well. You look at their numbers afterwards and realise how hard they're working."

As for Wellington's protracted injury drama over tighthead prop Neemia Tialata, Gatland expects he will start tomorrow night.

Gatland had a straightforward job of settling on an unchanged combination for the final. He described it as reward for a fine semifinal demolition of Otago last weekend.

He has left rousing loose forward Messam on the bench as he wrestled with the ticklish issue of how to fit four fine footballers into three positions. Sione Lauaki starts at No 8, captain Steven Bates at blindside and Marty Holah in the No 7 jersey.

"They've given me a lot of problems over the last few weeks. It would have been so easy to put Liam in the starting XV at No 6 or 8 and I know he'd have done a fantastic job, but there were other considerations," Gatland added.

Waikato's traditional pre-match captain's run is at lunchtime today. By close of business last night, 23,000 of 25,000 tickets had been sold. Of the remaining 2000, 1600 are standing tickets. All are expected to go today.