Canterbury Farah Palmer Cup Coach Blair Baxter has resisted tinkering too much with his winning side ahead of Saturdays round two clash against Waikato. 

Baxter has made just one change to the starting 15 that beat Counties 54-12 in round one of the Bunnings Warehouse Farah Palmer Cup, with speedster Grace Steinmetz back to full strength and promoted to a starting spot on the left wing. 

The bench, however, has a sprinkling of changes with Black Fern Amy Du Plessis set to earn her first Canterbury cap who, along with retuning halfback Di Hiini, the pair will be relied upon to add spark late in the game. “Combinations are important at this level, especially going up against a quality team like Waikato, so we felt the best thing to do was to reward the girls that played well for us last week against Counties with another start and give them more time to gel together,” said Baxter. 

“Grace (Steinmetz) is back to full fitness, so we are keen to give her as much opportunity as possible out there, she brings experience and speed, which is important out wide.” 

Baxter said he was looking forward to seeing Du Plessis and Hiini out in the middle and the spark they can add to the Canterbury attack. “Amy isn’t shy of getting physical and she’s got a great skill set, so it’ll be great to see that on show. Di has come back into the group after a couple of years away with a newfound passion for the team and the game, which she’ll show through her flair and ability too.” 

Baxter shrugged off the idea that this match was a rematch of last year’s final, where Canterbury beat Waikato in the dying stages 8-5 to win the 2020 Farah Palmer Cup competition. “That was last year. This is a new group, with one win over Counties under our belt. For us this has nothing to do with last year. Waikato will be good; we know that, and we want to be better than last week. That’s all there is to it.” 

Team to play Waikato:

1 Phillipa Love

2 Rebecca Todd

3 Amy Rule

4 Stacey Niao

5 Chelsea Bremner

6 Alana Bremner (C)

7 Lucy Jenkins

8 Lucy Anderson

9 Kendra Cocksedge

10 Terauoriwa Gapper

11 Grace Steinmetz

12 Liv McGoverne

13 Grace Brooker

14 Isabella Waterman

15 Rosie Kelly  

16 Georgia Ponsonby

17 Trina Greenslade

18 Stephanie Te Ohaere-Fox

19 Emma Dermody

20 Marcelle Parkes

21 Dianne Hiini

22 Amy du Plessis

23 Tayla Simpson

Article added: Friday 23 July 2021