Mid Canterbury Combined’s Marcus Bishop tries to break through the Lincoln High School defence during a pre-season game on Saturday. Photo Heather MackenzieA new-look Mid Canterbury Combined 1st XV rugby side ran onto the paddock for the first time this season on Saturday against Lincoln Combined.

The pre-season game on the Ashburton College field didn’t go their way – by the final whistle it was 37-0 in favour of the visitors – but for the new coaching line-up charged with seeing Mid Canterbury Combined through the 2019 UC Championship, it wasn’t about what the scoreboard said.

Mid Canterbury Combined features players from both Ashburton College and Mount Hutt College and they play in the UC Championship, the secondary school competition for the Crusaders rugby region.

It’s a tough competition and last year Mid Canterbury Combined didn’t win a game. One of the side’s coaches, Brent Middleton, said the side knows what it’s up against.

“It’s going to be extremely tough but it’s also going to be a great experience for the kids,” Middleton said.

In Mid Canterbury, they just don’t the numbers to chose from that some of the Christchurch schools do, and Mid Canterbury Combined is likely to be the smallest team in the competition this season, Middleton said.

What they lack in size, they need to make up in other ways. They need to ensure they’re mobile, fast and play the kind of rugby that will hopefully take them to at least some wins this season.

“We just hope we can get the kids to play a brand of football that they are going to enjoy,” Middleton said.

“We have got to play a brand of football that’s going to suit what we have got.”

Mid Canterbury Combined had opportunities to win games against some much more fancied opposition in 2018. They stuck with many until halftime, but then they’d get to the point where they’d tackled their hearts out and games slipped away.

On Saturday against the Lincoln side, Mid Canterbury Combined again showed glimpses of what they could be capable of when they are able to stick to their game plan. But Lincoln just proved too slick in the end.

Middleton said it’s not all about results, especially at this point of the year, and Saturday’s game was more about seeing where they’re at, and what they need to do if they’re going to surprise a few teams this season, which is the plan.

“It was probably more of a trial in some ways, as well as a pre-season game. It was a chance to have a look at some of the kids that we haven’t seen,” Middleton said.

This weekend Mid Canterbury Combined head to Oamaru to take on Waitaki Boys’ High School in another pre-season clash, and the weekend after that they’ll play St Andrew’s College in Methven, before taking a weekend off to refocus before the start of the UC Championship.

This year’s UC Championship kicks off on May 4, with Mid Canterbury Combined home to Marlborough Boys’ High School in round one.

By Erin Tasker © The Ashburton Guardian - 11 April 2019