East Coast Rugby Union Season – 2014
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2014
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Nine defeats in nine matches says it all. A major rebuild was required with only nine of last year’s squad returning. Whaimotu Craft-Chemis, Siegfried Fisi’ihoi, Te Rangi Fraser and Ricky Waitoa were all in Bay of Plenty, while Luke Bates, Brent Ingram, Everard Reid and Tau Moeke turned out for Poverty Bay.In total, 42 players were used by East Coast with 22 being debutants. Eleven of the players with experience were recalled, having not been used last year. The most amazing recall of them all was Victor Harrison.
His only previous year playing for East Coast was as a 19-year-old in 1993 when he played seven matches at lock. In 2014, at the age of 40, he played his 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th matches for the province at prop.Behind what was probably the lightest and smallest forward pack in the Heartland Championship, halfback Charlie Harrison was invaluable. His standards never slipped and he finished the season with 99 games for the union. The other back to shine was fullback Kris Palmer, while Robert Ngarimu had a promising debut in midfield. Pamona Samupo and Verdon Bartlett were ever-present starters.
In the forwards, hooker Kareti Palmer stood out, being top try-scorer and playing every game in his debut season. Lock Rhys Walker also had a good debut season, being the regular partner with his captain Pakanui Webb, the most experienced player in the forwards who played his 50th game in the last match. The scrum was a vehicle they could always rely on.
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| Match.Record: | Played 9 ; Lost 9 | |||||||||
| Points : | For 79 ; Against 395 | |||||||||
No matches yet.
We hope you enjoy this look back as we look forward to many more years of recording the history of Ngati Porou East Coast Rugby Union. We acknowledge all the information from the NZ “Rugby Almanack” Series from the season’s 1934 through to 2014 and appreciate their hard and dedicated work in providing this detailed history. – Web Admin
