Rugby: Umaga out but Counties still have gamebreakers

Former All Black captain Tana Umaga won't be playing for Counties Manukau this week. Photo / Paul Estcourt

Wellington fans hoping for a misty-eyed reunion with one of their favourite sons are out of luck - Tana Umaga will not suit up for Counties Manukau tomorrow.

Counties coach Milton Haig has previously signalled that Umaga's presence on the roster would be sporadic, and with Umaga failing to shrug off flu symptoms from the previous week, he was not considered.

So the sentimentalists miss out, but there are still enough gamebreakers in the backline with the back three of Sherwin Stowers, Ahsee Tuala and Tim Nanai-Williams capable of tearing apart any defence.

To have any chance of beating Wellington, however, they will need a repeat of the less glamorous work they performed against Otago.

"The most outstanding aspect of the win for a coach was the forwards really rose to the challenge and the defensive effort was great," Haig said of the 29-13 victory over the southerners.

In the late game, the country's two most northern unions meet in Whangarei. Northland will be buzzing from their upset victory over Taranaki and have the benefit of a 10-day rest, while North Harbour welcomes back some friendly faces, with All Black Anthony Boric, James King and Filo Paulo bolstering the locking ranks.

"It is amazing that this time last week we were very thin in the locking department against Auckland and now we have an All Black and two Super 14 locks, with the addition of Filo Paulo to the bench," coach Craig Dowd said.

Also returning is NZ Maori halfback Chris Smyllie, who was injured in the first game of their centenary celebrations, against the Barbarians, also in Whangarei.

But Ben Afeaki will miss the game with a rib injury. Jack Tarrant, who played seven tests for Japan last year, will start on the right wing ahead of the injured Ken Pisi.

Northland coach Bryce Woodward has brought Bryce Heem into the starting line-up ahead of Simon Munro who suffered a soft-tissue injury during training this week.

Like Haig, he credited last week's upset win on defence and said better fitness was behind better defence. "We gave our strength and conditioning guy a window through to the end of May. We've done the normal stuff since then but that was exclusively his time to get them up to speed," he said.

It paid immediate dividends. "The pleasing thing against Taranaki was that we were going as hard at the end as we were at the start."

* The date September 28, 1957, looms large for Otago supporters as they await their ritual Ranfurly Shield humiliation, this time against Southland today.

That was the day when Peter Burke's brave lads from Taranaki won 11-9 on Carisbrook. After a night's carousing around the Octagon, Taranaki took with them on a chartered DC-3 a Log o' Wood that is in danger of, with the construction of a new stadium nearing completion, never returning to the Brook's hallowed turf.

Anecdotes and tales have grown in legend since that fateful afternoon - such as the Taranaki players sitting in silence at the halftime break while an apoplectic Otago coach Charlie Saxton bawled out his players (who were leading 6-0 at the time), in the process handing the keen listeners next door the second-half gameplan.

None of which will interest the current crop of triers, or a Southland team who will be anxious to assert their belief that they are the number one province in the Highlanders region.

The match kicks off in Invercargill at 4.35pm.