Tasman to play final pre-season hit-out against strong Manawatu side.
Tasman's Super Rugby players are still out of the immediate frame which means another chance for the squad's younger prospects to shine in Friday's final pre-season rugby clash with Manawatu.
Tasman's national provincial championship squad was announced on Tuesday, with virtually all of their Super Rugby players yet to rejoin the side. But for Tasman's head coach Leon MacDonald, Friday's match at Trafalgar Park is an opportunity to create more competition within the squad.
"If a performance is that strong in this Manawatu game that somebody puts their hand up and the returning players have to fight for a spot, that's the ideal win for us," MacDonald said. "That's exactly what we want, to create some competition.
"I think in previous years the Super players have come back and had a free entry into the starting team, so we're hoping we can create a lot more competition throughout the whole squad."
Crusaders prop, Tim Perry, who's been playing recently for the Christchurch club, gets a start on Friday, having taken a long time to recover from a serious knee injury.
Otherwise, there's a familiar experimental feel to the Tasman lineup that so far have beaten a Counties Manukau lineup and lost heavily to a Wellington XV in a testing pre-season campaign.
There's now just 10 days to go until Tasman kick-off their NPC campaign against Waikato at Blenheim's Lansdowne Park and Friday's clash with Manawatu is the last chance for some of the newer players to stake a genuine claim.
"[The Super Rugby players are] coming back in dribs and drabs at the moment depending on the workloads they've had through the Super season, but the majority of them are not due back until Monday," MacDonald said.
"We just need a look at a couple of other players that we haven't seen a lot of in the forwards, so Pari Pari [Parkinson] is going to get a crack at lock. He's a young player on the rise and we haven't seen a lot of him and we've been impressed with the way he's trained.
"We're also using the opportunity to have a look at [young flanker] Braden Stewart...just to give him an opportunity at that level.
"It's a little bit of development with an eye on the future, but also just seeing how they can stack up against a pretty powerful Manawatu team.
"We don't have the luxury of our Super players back yet, but that's just the hand we've been dealt.
"But these guys have had a good training week...and I think we've made some massive progress since Wellington a week ago, so hopefully we can put it together on the field."
Friday's game kicks off at Trafalgar Park at 1.30pm.
TASMAN MAKOS: Mitchell Hunt, Jesse Pitman, Trael Joass, Alex Nankivell, Tima Faingaanuku, Tim O'Malley, Finlay Christie, Vernon Fredericks, Braden Stewart, Ethan Blackadder, Quinten Strange, Pari Pari Parkinson, Blair Prinsep, Andrew Makalio, Tim Perry. Reserves: Jesse MacDonald, Tom Hill, Jeff Lepa, Tone Ng Shiu, Teariki Ben Nicholas, Billy Guyton, Josh Tafili, Richard Kingi.
MANAWATU TURBOS: Matt Feaunati, Newton Tudreu, Jason Emery, Hamish Northcott, Curtis Reid, Ben Wyness, Kayne Hammington, Kane Thomson, Antonio Kiri Kiri, Heiden Bedwell-Curtis, Jackson Hemopo, Tom Parsons, Mike Alalaatoa, Tim Cadwallader, Fraser Armstrong. Reserves: Hunter Prescott, Tuki Raimona, Jake Ilnicki, Liam Matchell, Kepu Tuifua, Harrison Brewer, Valentino Mapapalangi, Jamie Booth, Sam Malcolm, Mapa Tuipulotu, Luther Hirini.
