Opinion: Heartland has plenty of talent for No9

HALFBACK WARS: Whether Border's Lindsay Horrocks, (with the ball), or Ruapehu's William Short was the true Most Valuable Player in 2014, the Wanganui Heartland team should be well served in the halfback department for the representative campaign. Photo/Flle

I'm still smiling about how the assessments of who truly was Wanganui Premier rugby's Most Valuable Player seemed to work themselves out in the points allocations of the past few weeks.

With duelling halfbacks Lindsay Horrocks of Border and Ruapehu's William Short both running neck and neck at the top of the leaderboard, one couldn't help but notice that each always seemed to be granted at least one point from their matches in the rundown to the end of the regular season, regardless of game results.

For the record, WRFU development officer JB Phillips would often ask me, the impartial scribe, to give him a ranking of three points down to one from certain games if I happened to catch him on cellphone while checking scores from the games I didn't attend on Saturdays.

But that was not every week, nor can neutral observers be at every ground, so in the end Phillips was often called to rely upon the assessments of the club coaches and managers.

When Short, who has had a very good year directing Wanganui club rugby's most consistently strong tight-five, was subbed off for David Gower with Ruapehu trailing Taihape 14-8 in Ohakune last weekend, I could only shrug and figure Horrocks, whose Border team was on the bye, would now claim the MVP crown.

Yet there it was on Sunday morning the MVP allocations with Short sharing equal billing with Taihape fullback Dane Whale as evidently the best players on show in Ruapehu's 16-14 win, gaining two points each.

But before we get too up in arms about favouritism, I had to think back to the previous weekend at Dallison Park where Border were in the process of slaughtering Marist 65-14.

Border assistant coach Guy Lennox approached and asked me that, "surely", Horrocks had to get three points out of the day for the way he was playing.

I politely agreed the Border No9 was performing well, but privately I thought so were about five to six other Waverley men as they chipped and chased or just bulldozed their way through virtually non-existent defence.

Sikeli Ulukuta got a hat trick of tries as part of a 28-point haul, while flanker John Laurie had a massive match.

In the end, Horrocks received one MVP point to stay two ahead of Short, leading into the final weekend of games.

That's probably why Border coach Ross Williams did not seem too annoyed Horrocks had to share the glory with Short when I spoke to him on Thursday night, tactfully admitting there was perhaps a few times when Horrocks might have been raised a point or two above his actual match performances as well.

Makes it a equal system, I suppose, if everyone's pushing for "their boy" to be the main man.

The bloke smiling the most has to be Wanganui Heartland coach Jason Caskey, because as he searches for a functioning backline in 2014, he has an abundance of local talent to fill the No9 jumper.

The competitive Horrocks and Short bring different options with their skill sets - Horrocks the instinctive attacker and Short the consummate field marshall.

Behind them, there are some big raps on young Marton scrumhalf Tyler Rogers-Holden as the logical choice for the third spot in his progression from the Wanganui U20s last year.

To that you can add Ratana's Kane Tamou who had an impressive club campaign behind a resurgent forward pack, while with over 35 appearances for Wanganui, dependable Kaierau veteran Josh Edwards always remains an option.

But it's who will wear the jersey outside them that is proving the worry.

In my travels around the district in the past five months there has not been a local first-five who made me point and say "that's the guy".

Too many teams needed makeshift options for their flyhalfs, as even after one-and-half seasons the departure of Mark Davis back to Taranaki is a giant hole that remains problematic to fill.

Taihape's Tom Wells will be a frontrunner, but injury has continued to dog him as it did in 2013 when he withdrew from the Heartland campaign.

All the Heartland teams that prospered last year did so on the back of dictatorial first-fives imported or otherwise.

I know the WRFU were casting their eyes down to the Wellington club scene earlier in the year, although some high profile transfers between Super 15 franchises meant their prospect at that time will be likely staying put in the capital for the ITM Cup. But Caskey, Lennox and co have roller-decks the size of phonebooks, and with a few extra weekends up their sleeve between club finals day on August 2 and the start of the Heartland competition on August 23, expect to see a fresh face making himself at home, one place off the ruck.