After a club rugby union season, Woody Martin will be among the Boxon league players looking to turn out for the Manawatu Mustangs in their NZRL campaign.
After a club rugby union season, Woody Martin will be among the Boxon league players looking to turn out for the Manawatu Mustangs in their NZRL campaign.
Despite not having played one minute of club league this season, the Manawatu Mustangs with their Whanganui Boxon players and coach are still confident of having a strong representative campaign over the next two months.
The Whanganui Boxon premier team went on hiatus this season after neither the Manawatu (MRL)or Taranaki Rugby League (TRL) were able to put together full club competitions.
However, the MRL is still entering a Mustangs team in the NZRL National Championship, and have scheduled a five game season.
With Boxon's Haze Reweti retaining his 2018 player-coach role, the Mustangs have scheduled trial games tomorrow and next Saturday at Fitzherbert Park in Palmerston North.
Reweti hoped to see 10 or more Boxon players attend.
A number of Boxon players had high profile roles in the Wanganui club rugby season.
Reweti was joined at Marist by prop Gordon Karaitiana and outside backs Emitai Logadraudrau and Jamie Lee Robertson, the latter being selected for the Wanganui Under 20 squad.
Emitai Logadraudrau.
The 2018 Mustangs captain Woody Martin was with the first Kaierau team to make the Premier semifinals since 2012, while centre/lock Tautahi Rawiri played a big hand in Ruapehu's 11-1 round robin.
Shane Henry turned out for Counties in their 50th anniversary season.
Reweti said it should not be hard for the players, especially the veterans, to get back into the 13-a-side code.
"If their match fitness is there, it's not much of a transition. A lot of them brought their style to rugby.
"These two trial matches will help them with transition, then guns a blazing with Wellington."
On the other side the equation, a number of Palmerston North-based Mustangs, who made up the Linton Cobras club team, switched over to the Linton Army Rugby Club this season.
The Boxon and Cobras moved from a stagnant MRL to join a six-team TRL competition last season, with Boxon winning their way into the grand final where they lost after a comeback by the Bell Block Marist Dragons.
At the start of 2019, the MRL could not recover their other premier club sides and TRL only had two local teams, prompting Boxon to pull out.
The 2019 Mustangs first game will be a tough home match against the Wellington Orcas on August 24, which is followed the next weekend by the Northland Swords flying into Palmerston North.
The first away game will be September 7 in either Tauranga or Rotorua against Coastline, before heading to New Plymouth seven days later to meet rivals the Taranaki Sharks, also selecting a team without a club league season.
Mustangs last match will be against Bay of Plenty in Rotorua on September 21.
