Victory heartens Lennox | Manawatu-Wanganui Sport | Surfing, Rugby, Soccer, Football, Cricket in Manawatu-Wanganui

Outside of an injury scare to his team captain Matt Gilbert, Wanganui rugby coach Guy Lennox was feeling pretty happy yesterday with the way his squad was shaping up for the start of the Heartland Championship this Saturday.

Steelform Wanganui's come-from-behind 40-38 victory over Manawatu B in Palmerston North revealed some very nice touches, some brute forward strength, and real courage to come back after losing control of the match through the middle of the second half.

Gilbert will be assessed at training tomorrow night after a small stomach tear as the team starts the real work of getting ready for the South Canterbury challenge on Saturday at Cooks Gardens.

New Waikato midfielder TK Moeke took a blow to the left hand, and Mark Davis had minor quad tightness in the area which cost him lots of playing time last year. However, it's believed both will be okay.

The only one of Saturday's starting team not to make the final squad was Kaierau's young winger Api Koroi, who was standing in for an ill John Mow anyway. Koroi's defensive positioning clearly needs some work.

Just 11 backs have been named, and with five of them being unable to make Saturday's match with Manawatu because of injury/illness, there is work to be done this week. Areta Lama (Kaierau) will train with the squad as cover, while Sheldon O'Hagen does that job in case of problems with Gilbert.

"I feel quite a bit more confident after Saturday's showing. We'll probably have to change things a little - we not going to be as big a side as we have been outside the front row.

"We will have to back ourselves at mobility and keep playing the game at a pace that hopefully is too much for the others."

But he says, "the signs are there".

And indeed they were at Palmerston North. Wanganui, with props Shaun McDonough and Gilbert outstanding, l had a 26-14 halftime lead with the wind (four tries), Manawatu came back to 26-24 only for Wanganui to have halfback matt Koubaridis deprived of a try on a touch judge's call which saw Waikato import Aaron Kelly yellow carded for an allegedly illegal clean-out.

Manawatu swept back against 14 men to score twice for a 38-26 lead before a much-changed Wanganui line-up revealed all the fight in the world to come back - led by a try by the game's strongest figure McDonough and completed by fullback Ace Malo running right over a home defender to score the winner - Ricky Alabaster landed the required conversions for the win.