Great way to celebrate Christie's 50th [Joe Wheeler]

MEET THE PEOPLE: Tasman Makos lock Joe Wheeler gets in among the fans after his side’s impressive win over Canterbury on Saturday.

In my wildest dreams I didn't think we'd do what we did to Canterbury on Saturday night.

That was definitely the biggest match of the year for us and the 38-10 result was awesome.

Christchurch has been a fortress for them, so for us to go down there for captain Shane Christie's 50th game and beat a team we've never beaten in Christchurch was something special that I don't think any of the boys will ever forget.

This is an enjoyable place to be. We've clicked as a team, we're playing good rugby and it stems from our team culture. Guys are out there expressing themselves and having fun on the field. We're loving it, and we need to build on that momentum.

Great teams are built on defence and that's an attitude thing - working hard for your mate next to you. That we've got a team who keep getting up off the ground and tackling again and again shows the character of the men in this squad. We set the standard in that area against Canterbury and we need to keep it up.

Having great support at AMI Stadium was a huge boost. At times it felt like a home game and all the chanting and noise really helped sustain us at the end.

The Nelson Bays and Marlborough under-18 teams were both sitting in an end stand, separately at first, but during the first half they joined forces and along with some other Makos fans, just dominated that stand and had it hissing. It shows the relationship between the Tasman unions - it's a friendly rivalry but they'll all jump on the same Makos bandwagon. Canterbury are a world class team and I know they'll come back even harder in the semis or the final.

We're proud we've sewn up a home semi at Trafalgar Park but that's just half the job. We're trying to create more history which is cool to do - and it drives this team.

Part of that will be our final regular season match against Counties Manukau in Blenheim on Sunday. The Ladies Day theme is appropriate because women play a massive part in rugby these days and we've all got a lot of support from our partners, mothers, grandmothers, sisters . . .

One woman who makes a huge contribution to our team is coach Kieran Keane's partner Jackie Hegglun. Jackie is battling breast cancer and to show our support for her and KK, we'll be wearing pink armbands, we're tracking down some pink bootlaces and those of us who wear headgear will be wearing pink headgear.

We'll auction off the headgear afterwards to raise funds for the Breast Cancer Foundation.

After that, it's on to the semifinal in Nelson the following weekend and hopefully, the final in Blenheim on October 25 after that. It doesn't matter who our opponent is; whoever - bring it on.

I hope to see another massive, loud crowd in the Boomtown.

Keep it long and keep it on