Mid Canterbury looking for three straight Meads Cups

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Mid Canterbury will look to cement their reputation as the kings of the Pink Batts Heartland Championship, if they lift the Meads Cup this season it will be the third straight year the union has lifted the trophy.

The proud union defended the Cup, named after All Blacks legend Sir Colin Meads, for the second straight year by beating Buller 36-13 in Westport to close off the 2014 Heartland season.

They will open their 2015 campaign in Ashburton taking on neighbouring rivals South Canterbury.

Last campaign it looks as if Buller, unbeaten during round robin play, would be good enough to win the trophy but the men from Mid Canterbury maintained their strong finish to the competition to claim the win.

Coach Glenn Moore, who is now with the Blues, said the win was a reflection of the work the players had put in since he was asked back to coach the side last year.

“It was right up there,” he said.

“In your career there are a lot of special moments but this was special as a result of what happened last year when the boys buttoned down and focused on winning.

“We were seventh in the middle stages of the competition and had to win four with bonus points but the boys showed their character to come through,” he said.

They had done some analysis of the Buller side and identified areas in behind their backline that might be worth probing.

“We saw that if we executed things well we could get in behind them. We kicked through and scored twice so we got our tactics right,” he said.

A central part of the team’s success was their fitness and that was a desire to be the fittest team in the competition.

“We’re not the biggest team and we try to move our opponents around. Fitness, skill and tactics have been the key components for us,” he said.