Dream drop goal seals Te Puke Sports win

Simon Rolleston was so convinced former Steamers first-five Nick McCashin could dig Te Puke Sports out of a hole should they need him that he didn't bother knocking over any drop goals in his pre-game warmup.
McCashin was out on Greerton Park before Saturday's Baywide club rugby premier final knocking drop goals towards the posts with varying degrees of accuracy, but Rolleston didn't bother. "Cashy was hitting a few over so I left the kicking to him," the 27-year-old said with a shrug of his shoulders, minutes after his towering 49m drop goal ended two decades of heartache for Te Puke as they won the premier club rugby title 21-18 over Whakarewarewa.
With nervous hands on heads on the Te Puke bench after the perennial Western Bay of Plenty bridesmaids fought back from 15-3 down early in the second half to lock it up at 18-all, the second-five's booming kick from almost on halfway created a magical finish to a top-drawer final at a great venue. The former Rangiuru player, who defected across town to Te Puke three seasons ago, thought McCashin might have been setting up for a dab at the extra points with the clock ticking down.
"The call came (with four minutes to play) to set it up in the middle for a droppie but the boys got too excited and spread it wide," said Rolleston, still clutching the match ball.
"Then the play before I was hoping Cashy might drop into the pocket for a crack but he ran out of time and we missed the chance."
It was replacement halfback Craig Donovan who set up the matchwinner, with Donovan diving on scrappy ball from a backpedalling Whaka scrum at Chris Miller's feet to create the turnover. Two phases later and almost miraculously the breeze that Te Puke had played into in the second half died. It was the green light Rolleston had been waiting for.
"I hit it as good as I could but the kick seemed to be heading a bit wide, although they tend to curl from right to left. This one came a bit later than usual so I wasn't sure 'til it dropped over. I wanted to be the one who had a go. This is the stuff every rugby player dreams about and practises for, and there was no way I was going to shy away from it."
Rolleston was mobbed by his teammates but Whaka screamed right back on attack searching for an equaliser. They had a sniff before Te Puke wing Andrew Tuise snatched back possession, scooting down the sideline before being bundled into touch.
"The call was no penalties in that last couple of minutes, although I got a fright when Andrew shot off like that with time up. All I could think was 'don't do anything silly man, run it out.' Luckily he got nailed out over the sideline because I think there were a few hearts in mouths by then!"