Playmaker Mitch Hunt will again play a pivotal role in the Mako game.
Rep rugby resurrection Words: Peter Jones
Shuttersport
It’s time to get those fins up again. After grappling with Covid restrictions for the past two seasons, provincial rugby has been given the green, or is that orange, light in 2022, with crowds welcomed back and a full, exciting schedule to look forward to.
O
ver the next few months, the Tasman Rugby Union will field a wide array of representative teams. Set to provide a feast of top-class sport are the Mako men, Mako women, Tasman Development, Te Tauihu Māori and Tasman under-19 sides, plus resurrected Nelson Bays Griffins and Marlborough Red Devils sub-union teams. The Mako men, runner-up to Waikato in the NPC premiership last season, face a slightly different challenge this time around, but with the same ultimate prize. The previous two-tier competition has been abandoned, replaced by a dual-conference format designed to give every one of the 14 provincial sides a chance of being crowned NPC champion at season’s end. The two conferences were based on the previous season’s standings, with teams playing all six conference rivals, as well as four crossconference games. The top four teams in each conference will qualify for quarterfinals, with the top two teams across the conferences playing against each other in the semis. Winners will meet in the NPC final. Tasman have been handed a testing draw. They will play Southland, Canterbury, Wellington, Taranaki and Northland at home, while tackling Otago, North
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Harbour, Manawatu, Auckland and Hawke’s Bay away. Once again, the team’s make-up will be dictated to some extent by the whims of the All Blacks’ selectors. Already five Mako backs have been chosen to wear the coveted silver fern – Sevu Reece, Will Jordan, David Havili, Leicester Fainga’anuku and Finlay Christie. Others, including former All Blacks Tyrel Lomax and Shannon Frizell, are on the fringe of selection. However, there is plenty of depth in the Mako ranks, honed over the previous three campaigns, two of which were successful. The selectors will not have far to look for established talent, with a swathe of Mako men turning out for various Super Rugby Pacific teams. The Tasman Super Rugby players were Anton Segner, Christie (Blues); Atu Moli and Alex Nankivell (Chiefs); Lomax (Hurricanes); Quinten Strange, Ethan Blackadder, Sione Havili Talitui, Havili, Reece, Jordan and Fainga’anuku (Crusaders); Andrew Makalio, Max Hicks, Hugh Renton, Frizell, Mitch Hunt and Fetuli Paea (Highlanders); Sam Moli, Isi Tu’ungafasi, Willie Havili, Levi Aumua and Timoci Tavatavanawai (Moana Pasifika), plus Te Ahiwaru Cirikidaveta (Fijian Drua).
