Five in a row for Bush

GROGAN ON THE RUN: Poverty Bay No.8 James Grogan capped a superb performance with a try in the 53-17 loss to Wairarapa Bush here at the weekend.

POVERTY Bay will have to wait another year before bringing home the Jeremy David Memorial Trophy after they lost 53-17 to Wairarapa Bush at Rugby Park on Saturday.

Wairarapa Bush have now won the past five Trophy matches. While they were worthy winners, the score did not accurately reflect the game

LeaderBrand Poverty Bay started well, dominating possession and territory for most of the first 20 minutes and led 7-3 through a try to Kerehama Barrett, who plays his club rugby in Hawke’s Bay and was making his Poverty Bay debut.

The hard-running centre dotted down after a break by Bay man of the match No.8 James Grogan, with first five-eighth Kahu Tamatea also involved.

Grogan — in his first start after two appearances off the bench, against Ngati Porou East Coast and Bay of Plenty Development — was here, there and everywhere.

He made good metres with the ball, stopped attacks with punishing tackles and was always in support of the ball carrier. On this performance, he must be a certain starter for Saturday’s Heartland opener against the Coast in Ruatoria.

However, it went wrong on the scoreboard for the home side in the nine minutes before halftime when openside flanker Corban Barbara was shown a yellow card for a professional foul, following a try against the run of play.

Priest, who gave a polished display of goalkicking and punting, landed the conversion five metres in and 22m out.

With Barbara off, the Bush stretched the gap with a try to former Bay player Paul Tikomainavalu on the left wing. Priest again obliged from the sideline and with one minute to the break, the skipper kicked a penalty.

Before Barbara returned, the Bush added another try shortly after halftime.

“Don’t blame the sinbinning; the damage was done before Corban went off,” Bay coach Mutu Ngarimu said.

“We left behind two, maybe three tries, which changed the complexion of the game.

“Our ball retention, when we had opportunities, was disappointing. We lacked composure and missed far too many one-on-one tackles.

“Then when we were chasing the game we went away from our structures, got far too loose and Bush capitalised.

“It was a rude awakening and showed we still have a lot of work to do before we play the Coast.”

Down 34-7, the Bay hit back in the 56th minute when Grogan was rewarded for an outstanding performance with a try after a good break from replacement forward Tamanui Hill, who injected some of the intensity that Ngarimu said was missing.

The Bush replied almost immediately with their fifth try and Priest’s first miss of the day.

Bay right-winger Tyronne White, who scored a try on debut last week backed that up with another five-pointer. Tamatea and replacement back Siua Moala did the spadework before replacement halfback Willie Haenga offloaded to White, who showed plenty of dtermination to get the ball down despite the attentions of two tacklers.

That was to be the end of the scoring for the Bay but the Bush added two more tries, including one to former Ngatapa hooker Hamish Forrester.

POVERTY BAY 17 (Kerehama Barrett, James Grogan, Tyronne White tries; Kahu Tamatea con).

Wairarapa Bush 53 (Johnie McFadzean, Paul Tikomainavalu, Andrew Makalio, Viliami Hala, Cameron Hayton, Nick Olsen, Hamish Forrester, tries; Tim Priest 6 con, 2 pen).

Halftime: 20-7.