‘Gutsy effort’: premier wins to YMP, OBM, Ngatapa

Try double: YMP lock Willis Tamatea scored two tries against Waikohu in Week 2 of the premier grade rugby on Saturday. YMP beat Waikohu 26-7 in a repeat of the 2022 final. Picture by Paul Rickard

YMP continued their strong start to the Poverty Bay premier club rugby season with a hard-earned 26-7 win over Waikohu at Barry Park on Saturday.

Earthwork Solutions HSOB showed grit at the Oval but Enterprise Cars OBM came out on top 55-22 to retain the Peter Martin Cup in their Civil Project Solutions premier clash.

Larsawn Ngatapa bounced back from their opening weekend loss to defeat an improving Kevin Hollis Glass Pirates 44-17 at the Oval.

East Coast Farm Vets YMP coach Kahu Tamatea expected there to be sore bodies from both sides after Saturday’s physical battle.

“It was a gutsy effort from our 22 to hold a classy Waikohu side to just seven points when you see the line-up they had . . . we defended hard and in numbers,” he said.

Tamatea knew that it was going to be a tough contest against GT Shearing Waikohu and it showed him that they still had work to do.

“We have to protect our ball a lot better,” he said. “They were able to get a few turnovers and we were penalised quite a few times.

“But when it was our time to attack we were able to show glimpses of how good we can be with ball in hand.

“I’m very pleased with our team’s effort but there’s plenty to work on for our upcoming games.”

Waikohu coach Tane McGuire said his team were still building

“We’re getting there,” he said.

The Te Karaka township is still going through a rebuild in the wake of Cyclone Gabrielle and that had made it hard to get traction training-wise.

“They (YMP) were really physical so it was good to get that time of game to see where we need to get to,” McGuire said.

“They showed it’s an 80-minute game. We played well for 50 until the gas tank ran out and their fitness paid dividends.”

YMP struck early. They quickly applied  pressure and three minutes in found a gap for winger Genesis Bartlett-Tamatea to score in the corner

Fullback Andrew Tauatevalu converted.

The rain came about 10 minutes as Waikohu pressed YMP back inside their half.

Quick play from the base of the ruck by halfback Hamuera Moana saw the ball shifted through the hands for winger KC Wilson to score in the corner.

Centre Ethine Reeves sent over the sideline conversion to level it 7-all where it stayed for the remainder of the half.

It took 16 minutes of play in the second half of play before either side got close enough to score.

Five metres out from the tryline, the ball was passed to No.8 Stuart Leach, who blasted through to score behind the sticks.

Tauatevalu’s conversion made it 14-7.

YMP continued to put Waikohu under pressure and from a maul after a drive from a lineout ended in lock Willis Tamatea crashing over in the 63rd minute.

Eleven minutes later, Tamatea made it a double when he collected the ball from a messy Waikohu lineout and ran 60 metres to score in the corner, and Tauatevalu converted.

Halfbacks Ra Broughton(YMP) and Moana were named the teams’ MVPs.

YMP 26 (Willis Tamatea 2, Genesis Bartlett-Tamatea, Stuart Leach tries; Andrew Tauatevalu 3 con).

Waikohu 7 (KC Wilson try; Ethine Reeves con).