There’s one more inter-union trophy to regain and another to retain, as Steelform Whanganui expect a tough workout on Saturday ahead of the upcoming Meads Cup semifinals.

The third of consecutive derby games, Whanganui hosts fifth-placed King Country at Cooks Gardens for the final round of the Bunnings Warehouse Heartland Championship regular season.

They will defend the Bill Osborne Taonga for the last time in 2024 while looking to regain the Sir Colin Meads Memorial Trophy, which they once again left behind in Tauramanui last year in a frustrating 23-17 loss.

“That would be nice to get that back [and] hold the Bill Osborne Taonga, just tick all those boxes off,” said coach Jason Hamlin.

“But it’s all a by-product of playing well – a home semifinal is on the line for us, there’s lots of things for us to not take our eyes off the prize about this game.”

Strike weapon and the competition’s leading try-scorer Alekesio Vakarorogo (eight tries) quietly continued the rehab on his sore hamstring at Tuesday night training, while in further good news, captain Jamie Hughes has recovered from his leg injury after being rested for the win over Horowhenua-Kapiti.

“Jamie will be good to go, just an opportunity to give him a bit of a break and let his body recover a little bit more,” said Hamlin.

“If it had been a playoff game last week, he probably would have played.”

Hamlin was also satisfied with the long-awaited comeback of prop Raymond Salu, who scored off the bench in his 35 minute stint in Levin.

“We’ll do some more work this week around Ray.

“He’s played a season of club footy and was obviously really damaging there, he’s in a slightly different setup for him and how do we get the best out of Ray?

“We know what type of x-factor he brings with ball in hand, but he’s got to marry that up with his core roles which still have to be done.

“At this stage of the year, teams are pretty unforgiving if you’re not up to scratch, and he is behind the 8-ball, obviously, with not playing for a little period of time.”

The team will be missing dynamic fullback Tyler Rogers-Holden this weekend with a pre-planned commitment, but with the utility value of the likes of Peceli Malanicagi and Ethan Robinson available, the No15 jumper will be well covered.

In fact, Whanganui has enough quality available off their reserves bench, who contributed three tries in Levin, that during the bus ride home a nickname was christened for the group by young lock Ngapuke Patea, and immediately endorsed by Malanicagi and regular reserve prop Kereti Tamou.

“Mob Squad”, which is in response to undefeated Meads Cup rival South Canterbury’s infamous “Bomb Squad” who have been responsible for so many late-game victories.

“It’s the ‘Mob Squad’ now, is it?” smiled Hamlin.

“It’s quite positive, I quite like that.

“That’s a really nice quality of what we’ve had so far this year - is that the boys are buying into their stuff and putting their own story on it and that’s what you like.

 “That’s the sort of thing you want to see out of this young team – [it’s] an experienced team in lots of regards, but still lots of young players in here.

“You take out the Jamie’s and the Dane’s [Whale], and Gabe [Hakaraia] and Kamipeli [Latu] now, those 80’s to 50’s [games], there’s a lot of young footballers in terms of Heartland experience between that.”

The same can be said for a rugged King County unit, who have won their last three games to still have an outside chance of overtaking Mid Canterbury to snatch the final Meads Cup semifinal spot.

Hamlin acknowledges the efforts of coach and local legend Aarin Dunster (113 provincial games, 13 NZ Heartland XV games) who over the previous two-and-half seasons has built a core of players with 20-30 games worth of experience.

That includes three members of the Dunster family in the starting lineup, with talented lock Cruise Dunster (28 games) having played both for and against the NZ Heartland XV, with the NZ Barbarians.

Hooker Liam Rowlands (43 games) and loose forward Kaleb Foote (25) are also former NZ Heartland XV representatives, while winger Patrick Hedley, on loan from the University of Waikato Club, is the top points scorer for the entire competition with 115 (seven tries, 22 conversions, 12 penalties).

“He’s done a good job with them, put some belief in them, put some good work into them, and they’re really showing that result,” said Hamlin of his opposite coach.

“So they stay in the game and they don’t beat themselves, so there are the things we’ve got to keep working on – not presenting opportunities.

“For as well as we’ve played, and the scorelines we’ve put up, that’s probably the thing that frustrates me the most is when we clock off a little on it, we present teams real easy opportunities.

“Everybody’s been able to take advantage of that, and truth be told we probably did it in the South Canterbury game as well and that’s what cost us that match.”

Therefore, the goals for Saturday are to continue the inventive attack and be restrictive when working in their own half, especially late in the game, as well as looking to come through injury free with Thames Valley looming in the semifinals.

“If we can do that, we can put ourselves in a good place against anybody in this competition,” said Hamlin.

Kickoff is 2.30pm on Saturday.

By Jared Smith