Top players miss early stages

By JOHN GASPARICH

With the Super 12 taking pride of place early in the season, club coaches are flying on a wing and a prayer in predicting championship form when the provincial club contest gets under way this weekend.

Commitments to the Blues, Highlanders and Hurricanes leave North Harbour clubs shy of about 14 top-shelf players. That adds up to heaps of experience that will not rub off on to younger players in the early rounds.

Champions North Shore are hard hit. Goalkicking ace Willie Walker is permantly lost to the Highlanders and Otago, and wing Anthony Tahana, who set Harbour club try-scoring records last season, has returned to the Bay of Plenty.

East Coast Bays coach Mark Dawson is aware his young side will struggle early without the expertise of Blues big guns Mark Robinson and Slade McFarland.

Similarly, Marist will miss the leadership of prop Tony Coughlan, who has gone permanently to the Hurricanes and Wellington.

But it is not all doom and gloom. Shore are plugging the gaps through former field events exponent Courtney Ireland, a No 8 returned after a four-year stint in Japan, and a promising flanker, Chris Williams.

Williams is a nephew of a former All Black great, wing Bryan Williams.

Marist have gained Garrard Bear, from the Otago development squad, and experience at centre in Logan Campbell, who has had eight years of rugby league in England under his belt.

Takapuna, unbeaten in their defence of the Blues club championship, are in fine fettle, as are Northcote, in liaison with the Harbour campus of the Auckland University of Technology to boost playing strength.

Helensville, Silverdale, Massey and Glenfield continue the policy of promoting players up through the grades.

It is expected Hayden Ferris will give up coaching to return, when the grounds soften up, to complete his 200 matches for the Glenfield premiers.

Kumeu will not field a premier side. Instead, they will concentrate developing young local talent.

Navy, taking the role of a services club, need to hope the police and army are not over-taxed when the ships are at sea, and Mahurangi are unknown quantities with the potential to pull off a surprise or two.

The Harbour championship consists of a full round (11 teams) then splits into two sections to decide the semifinalists in an all-too-short club season to be completed by July 27.