Top of the table South Canterbury (maximum 25pts) won 39-26 at home against West Coast (11 pts) last weekend and second-placed Thames Valley (23 pts) scraped home 34-31 against Mid Canterbury (11 pts) in Ashburton.
There will now be a ton of interest on Saturday when the top four teams meet – Valley hosting defending champions South Canterbury at Whangamata and Whanganui v East Coash here.
Last weekend sixth-slotted Wairarapa-Bush (16 pts) scored a third win (35-26 at home over penultimate placed King Country – 6 pts) with Horowhenua-Kapiti (9 pts) winning 33-22 over bottom-of-the-table Buller (3 pts) in Levin.
The Butcher Boys meet both Wairarapa (away) and Horowhenua (here) in Heartland and Bruce Steel Memorial Cup fixtures later in the month.
East Coast will become only the second defending Lochore Cup champions to register a victory at Cooks Gardens if they win on Saturday.
Buller, the 2012 Lochore holders who beat Whanganui 40-30 here in a Lochore semi in 2013, is the only union to have so far achieved that feat.
Eight other defenders of the trophy have tasted defeats including Poverty Bay on five occasions.
The Bay, winners of the Lochore Cup for the first four seasons of Heartland Rugby, was beaten here in 2007 22-20, 2008 36-10, twice in 2009 56-0 and 48-13 (Meads Cup semi) and 2012 42-3 with Wairarapa-Bush losing 29-14 in 2013, North Otago 10-6 in 2017 and Mid Canterbury 30-12 in 2018.
Whanganui has an average winning score of 34-14 in the nine home fixtures against Lochore champions.
Last season East Coast beat Mid Canterbury 25-20 after being held to 10-all at home at halftime in the Lochore final.
It was one of six close Coast victories in 2022, following earlier home success against West Coast 29-27 and Wairarapa-Bush 20-16 and away v Mid Canterbury 36-34, Poverty Bay 12-10 and Horowhenua-Kapiti 37-30 in the semifinal.
East Coast, formed in 1921, traditionally uses a full quota of loan players and last year fielded players from Wellington, Auckland, Counties-Manukau, North Harbour and Hawke’s Bay plus playing Te Atatu rugby league centre Apirana Pewhairangi.
Over the years East Coast has managed only three victories from 30 clashes against the Butcher Boys and all three were at Whakarua Park in Ruatoria – 31-24 in an NPC Div 2 game in 2001 and twice in Heartland fixtures at the same venue in 2012.
The unions had contested the Meads Cup final the previous year, which Steelform Whanganui won 30-10 at Cooks Gardens, but Coast turned the tables 25-17 at home in the fifth qualifying round in 2012.
Whanganui opened up a 27-3 lead in the final, but inspired by a massive half-time haka involving several hundred fired-up supporters, the Coasters wore the Butchers down to snatch an historic 29-27 first-ever Heartland championship title.
Tau Moeke, a NZ Heartland rep who had previously played for Poverty Bay and been in the Whanganui side beaten 39-18 by North Otago in the 2010 Meads final at Oamaru, scored one of Coast’s four tries.
Whanganui goes into Saturday’s fixture with an average winning score of 43-10 from 30 games since 1976 (Heartland averages 45-13 in 11 matches).
Whanganui, who won 34-18 last year in Ruatoria, has scored 27 victories and suffered three losses (all at Ruatoria).
Former All-Black Hosea Gear, who coached Coast to win the Lochore Cup a year ago, is again in the director of a side that this campaign has so far retained the Bill Osborne Challenge Taonga 19-8 v Mid Canterbury, 38-29 v North Otago and 31-11 v Poverty Bay in home defences, and beaten Buller 24-21 at Westport after being pipped 32-31 by Wairarapa-Bush at Masterton on opening day.
The team has scored 142 points and conceded 101 with an average 29-20 match score compared with Whanganui’s 135 for and 95 against (average 27-19).
That could indicate a close encounter this weekend.
