A slow start in a truncated rugby season has left Hunterville no chance of a top spot this season

There was a time Hunterville seemingly could not be beaten in senior Whanganui rugby.

Brought to you by Wanganui Rugby

There was a time when beating Kelso Hunterville was as good as winning the Tasman Tanning Senior Championship – usually because the two were mutually inclusive.

Representing a township of less than 450 people, Hunterville were the most successful local rugby club of the 2010s – including the extraordinary run of six straight titles from 2009-14.

With Hunterville there is always a sense of renewal – the Ruapehu Senior team who upset them in the 2015 final no longer exists, while in the next two years they ran into a new Settler's Honey Ngamatapouri team on their way up to Premier and a then-strong Speirs Food Marton who had come back down.

Hunterville reclaimed the title in 2018, and although there were some frowns when they didn't qualify for the two-Premier, four-Senior teams grade of Division 2 last year under that unique three-way split, they still duly went on to claim the Division 3 title to finish the decade as they started – as champions.

"I reckon, we'd be up there with one of the most successful clubs in Wanganui rugby history," said coach Greg Parkes, the former captain who joined the club in 2008.

"That's why Celtic keeps kicking around. A lot of them started at the same time we did, and they're still trying to win it."

It has taken the retirement of the core players from that early to mid-2010s run, plus the biggest pandemic in 100 years, to leave Hunterville resigned to the fact they will not get a chance at playoff rugby this season.

With 11 teams trying to make a sole top-two final in a truncated campaign, a slow start has left Hunterville in fifth place and too far back.

Otherwise, this would be the time of year where the country team would make a signature resurgence, because there wouldn't be a WRFU club brave enough to write them off should the season have had the usual semifinals format.

"We should have beaten Taihape [13-13], we had three points in front to win and missed," said Parkes.

"Utiku – who knows what would have happened [17-7, serious injury ended game 22 minutes early]?

"Ratana [38-15], no excuses."

Otherwise, Hunterville have picked up wins over Marton (6-5), Marist Buffalos (24-15) and Border (32-10), and with an average age in the starting XV of 21-22, Parkes wants a strong season finish to set up the next chapter for the club, should life return to normal as hoped in 2021.

The presence of the Otiwhiti Station Land Based Training School does allow a steady string of rugby recruits – roughly 6-7 farming cadets don the boots every season - while veterans like Parkes' brother Scott and Nick Kipling continue to contribute.

Changing the criteria for receiving the club blazer from 75 games to 50 has seen Sheamus Murphy, Aidan Keogh and Ben Dickinson obtain the honour in 2020, all having played more than 60 matches, while Patrick Henderson will soon join them.

The toasts were raised for Chris Wilton's 100th game against Marton, and reaching that milestone this coming weekend will be Hunterville's outstanding captain George Gardner, still only 28, who was the WRFU's 2018 Senior Player of the Year and won back-to-back Forward of the Year prizes in 2018-19.

Unfortunately, due to level 2 restrictions, there can't be a wider celebration at Hunterville when they host Black Bull Liquor Pirates on Saturday, but Parkes said they are looking at options for their spectators around viewing points from the road and school areas beside the ground.

"At home games, we do get a good crowd.

"Hopefully, people can sit in their cars and watch, and then move off."

The draw is:

Senior (1pm kickoffs unless otherwise noted): Ratana vs Celtic, Ratana Pa; Taihape vs Marist Buffalos, Memorial Park; Utiku Old Boys vs Counties (2.30pm), Memorial Park; Marton vs Border, Marton Park; Hunterville vs Pirates (2pm), Hunterville.