Midway through the 2025 Shute Shield season, West Harbour made an early called and sacked new coach Phil Blake after a slow start to the season.

Ben Rutherford took on the role just after the June long weekend and while the results didn’t quite come for the Pirates, West Harbour showed plenty of fight in the final rounds of the season.

Overview with Ben Rutherford: 

“It was a bit of a strange season at West Harbour this year and from the outside, it would obviously look quite disappointing,” Rutherford told Rugby News. 

“I’m still on really good terms with Phil (Blake). We had a good honest chat when I was offered the role and there was no bad blood there. That was really important for me. 

“Unfortunately, a decision was made and an opportunity presented itself for me.

“In terms of the season itself, I think the disappointing thing for us is that when you look back at it, we finished the season with the best line out in the comp.

“Our set piece was also pretty dominant, even if it wasn’t as consistent as we would have liked and there were eight games where we trailed by five points or less at halftime.

“So we were in games. But the reality is that our defence was just woeful. There’s no sugar coating it, it was terrible and we probably lacked some conditioning as well.

“The positive is that defence and conditioning are two areas that we can work on and hopefully fix fairly quickly. 

“The other positive is the resilience the players showed this year. It would have been quite easy for the players to give up halfway through the year, but they battled back and played some really good footy towards the backend of the year. 

“They were unlucky not to win more games in those final few rounds.”

What’s the focus at West Harbour between now and round one next year?

“The priority for the club is retention,” the coach said. 

“I still believe there’s a number of guys in our group with huge potential, particularly if they can get their conditioning right. 

“So the focus is to retain our core group and with the new cap system, you can’t really recruit like clubs used to. 

“In terms of our footy, I think the number one priority is our defence. For a number of years, right across the club, our defence hasn’t been good enough, so I think we need to simplify what we are looking to do on that side of the ball so there is complete clarity around each player’s role. 

“If we’ve got clarity, then we can drive accountability across both our players and our coaches.”

Which of your players do you think can push on to the next level?

“Onehunga Kaufusi played No.8 for us this year and I think he ended the season with the most runs of any player in the competition.

“He’s a little older and has played for Tonga previously and spent some time in the MLR. 

“He’s a bit of a silent assassin and I think with a really good preseason under his belt, I think he can go to another level.

“Drew Sellers finished in the top 10 of the Catchpole medal and still has improvement in him. He’s the fittest guy at the club, so there’s no issues with that.

“Then we’ve got a young guy named Harrison Henson who is really exciting. He’s a winger who went to Newington but has had a bad run with injuries over the last little bit. If he can stay fit, he has a huge future ahead of him. 

“Taine Rush in the centres is also a really quality player and person.”

What are you expecting in 2026? 

“It’s tricky to answer that,” Rutherford said. 

“The Shute Shield has never been more competition than it is at the moment and we’ve seen a number of teams push from the bottom of the ladder to win competitions in recent years. 

“I’m not suggesting we’re going to win the Shute Shield next year, but if we can get some of the things I spoke about earlier right, then I certainly think we’re good enough to play finals footy. 

“As to who will win the come, there’s probably a number of clubs that will be good enough. It’ll be tight again I think.”