LUZ ZUNIGA/STUFF
Rupena Parkinson will lead a talented Tasman side at next week's Jock Hobbs Memorial National Under-19 tournament.
Don't mention the word underdog around the Tasman Under-19 rugby team.
They'll certainly be venturing into uncharted territory when they contest the top eight Graham Mourie Cup premiership for the first time at next week's Jock Hobbs Memorial National Under-19 tournament at Taupo's Owen Delany Park.
But after taking out the South Island grading series with wins over Otago (62-19), Canterbury (27-24) and Southland (22-17), they're well primed for Sunday's opening tournament match against the second-ranked Chiefs region team Waikato. And according to Tasman head coach Mike Fraser, his players certainly aren't overawed by what lies ahead of them in Taupo.
"We haven't trained to be underdogs, we've trained to get a result," Fraser said. "We don't see it that way at all, we don't care who we play against.
"We're not worried who we play ... we're just worried about what we do. We'll just prepare our team to play to our strengths and obviously look for opportunities."
Some smart off-season recruitment by Tasman has resulted in the acquisition of quality players such as centre and captain Rupena Parkinson, flanker Te Ahiwaru Cirikidaveta and fullback Jamie Spowart. Combined with such exciting home-grown talent as first five-eighth Willy Havili and forwards Isaiah Miller, Sosefo Vaka and Samiuela Moli, Tasman now have a dynamic, well-balanced core of players.
"When we can field our top team we can field a reasonably good-sized scrum," he said in reference to Cirikidaveta, Vaka, Miller and Moli who all weigh in excess of 100kg.
"So I think we've got a forward pack that's reasonably well prepared and pretty motivated to take on any challenge that comes their way. We've got some speed and a bit of x-factor in the backs to go with it, so I think we're a reasonably good all round team."
Fraser said that an experienced and analytical coaching and management team, including former Scotland international and Hurricanes assistant coach Jono Phillips, had helped to consolidate the programme which had started back in November.
"One thing that is a positive for us is that we're going in with a fully fit squad. And if we look at the game against Southland, we had five guys that didn't play who would have been front-line starters for us ... and three of them were actually our leaders."
Fraser said that the key to success in Taupo was "just doing everything right, just going there and preparing properly with the right game plan".
"We're definitely not getting ahead of ourselves, we're just taking each day as it comes and hopefully they'll get everything right and the cards fall our way on the day."
Joining Tasman in this year's premiership are Auckland, North Harbour, Bay of Plenty, Waikato, Wellington, Manawatu and Canterbury. Waikato won last year's premiership title, with Counties Manukau winning the championship title for the Michael Jones Trophy.
First day winners will qualify for Wednesday's semifinals, with the finals scheduled for the following Saturday.
Tasman's match kicks off at Owen Delany Park on Sunday at 10.45am.
AT A GLANCE
TASMAN UNDER-19 SQUAD: Eden Beech, Tommy Allen, Mitchell Walsh, Quinn Harrison-Jones, Teu Sami, Joe Brady, Samiuela Moli, Sosefo Vaka, Lemeki Cagialau, Harrison Curtis, Te Ahiwaru Cirikidaveta, Isaiah Miller, Tim Sail, Ryan Dafel, Tyler Power, Jack Grooby, Willy Havili, Rupena Parkinson, Timoci Tavatavanawai, Jakob Dabinett, Vito Lammers, Jamie Spowart, Culainn Stringer, Mitchell Amberger, Isaac Briggs