The Country 15/10/25: Sam Ward talks to Hamish McKay

We catch up with a rugby coach and commentator for an update on the Heartland Rugby Finals.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Righty, hey, let's go to a bit of the old
heartland rugby. Bloody beautiful thing. We're joined now by. He's
a coach, a commentator, not a bad bloke either, young
fella Sam won't get a Sam.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
How are you, mister McCaw, mister how are you? Mate?

Speaker 1 (00:16):
I missed you in the commentary box. I just quick story.
Sam was down to do co commentary of a match
recently in the NPC. The commentator just through a you know,
just through an era of communication, didn't turn up, so
co commentator switch down into the commentator. I get a
call to say, Russian hamss can you go and and
join you? Sam? You know I listened to him on
the way. Mate is peg and the proverbial you're loving it? Sam?

(00:40):
How's your week looking? Are you heating south? You've got
the big game your teams Valley Boys have got in
mid Canterbury.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
Yep, absolutely, we'll be traveling with the boys this week.
We had tiny and Tootah last night and all hands
on deck and there's certainly plenty of excitement in camp. Mate.
It's a big week.

Speaker 1 (00:59):
Yes, How does it work? So there's the meads and
the La Hall, which is the how does that flip around?
Just explain that to us, how that we get to
those two finals with the other game being North Otago
hoofin or a carpety.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
Yeah, so there's twelve teams in the Heartland NBC. The
top four qualifiers go through to the Meads Cup semi
finals and finals. The next four so five through eight
go into the Lahore and then the nine through twelve
it's out. So that's how. That's how it's all shaken
out so far.

Speaker 1 (01:30):
Oh that's good, that's good. So the top dog, the
big gap, the mid Canterbury Thames Valley, so mid Canterbary
top qualifiers, that's at Ashburton. How's the team? How the swamp?

Speaker 2 (01:43):
He's going to go, Hey, look, we're under no illusions.
We had the Hammers round one in ye and I
think the final score is about thirty four to fifty.
We know that they're a hard working team. They've got
some mowesome players. McCormick seven, just then absolutely workhoorse maclaire
McCloy get them around the park. They've got plenty of

(02:04):
pace and to be fair, mate, they've been really consistent
and really cohesive, which is why they've gotten eight from
eight and obviously won their semi final last week.

Speaker 1 (02:15):
So eight from eight, nine from nine, are you going
to make it nine from ten? Do you have the
artillery on that teams valley side to cause the upside upset?

Speaker 2 (02:25):
Hey? I believe so, mate. There's been obviously a tough
start of the year. I think we went one from
four and then we managed to I suppose, turn a
couple of corners, make a few tweaks. The boys have
really brought in. The effort's been fantastic and I think
the cohesion that we've managed to put together over the
last four or five weeks has been really impressive. There's
combinations that are really getting into their work now and

(02:49):
plenty of excitement. As I mentioned with in the camp.

Speaker 1 (02:52):
Yeah, it's been good to see teams that have started
across the board, right through the Bunnings MPC as well,
who started slightly Counties Monaco good example of that, who
really found their rhythm and almost knocked over the big
hot shots in that quarter final category. So good to
see that. Well, I'm pleased to hear that about the
Thames Valey Boys because my recollection is that when we
were talking all last time we commentated together. It was

(03:13):
sort of in that one from one from four zones.
So it's a challenging Hey, just quickly, crowd and crowds
and the general has it been Have you noticed an upswing?

Speaker 2 (03:26):
Yeah? Absolutely, there's been messages coming around New Zealand overseas.
I think the beautiful thing about the Heartland foot is
that it catches hearts, especially at finals time. So yeah,
I think it's a pretty captured audience this weekend. In
terms of crowds, I mean every town you go to,
there's always parochial locals, there's always awesome supporters that travel

(03:49):
around the country and no doubt they'll be close to
the old hoardings on Sunday down in Ashburten.

Speaker 1 (03:56):
Absolutely, there we go. Sam Ward commentator coach involved the
Thames Valley side like mid Canabary Ashburton and the Maid's
Final and the whole final tager half for another company
down there at the Mahino Rugby Club