Kaupoi give Rams a scare

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

A bomb went off under the Sky Blues on Saturday.

On the back of a stellar second-half performance by first five-eighth Carlos Kemp, the Ngāti Porou East Coast Kaupoi ran the King Country Rams close at Rugby Park in Te Kuiti.

The Rams (15 competition points) beat the Coast (14) 32-21, swapping ninth place for sixth in the Bunnings Warehouse Heartland Championship.

The Coast are now placed eighth of 12.

NPEC first-five Kemp converted his own try to get the visitors on the board at 22-7 after halftime, and also kicked three penalty goals. Blindside flanker Richie Green was the other try-scorer.

Sky Blues lock Khian Westrupp was their Kaupoi (East Coast Cowboy, most valuable player); the hosts' MVP was try-scoring second-five Carlos Bellass.

King Country have won 32 of their 35 games against the Coast.

East Coast head coach Hosea Gear acknowledged excellent play by King Country in the form of 50-22 line-kicks and four first-half tries, although the fact NPEC did not take their opportunities was frustrating.

“In the first half, we departed from our game-plan and the boys dug themselves a hole,” Gear said.

“We returned to our game-plan in the second half.”

King Country coach Craig Jeffries, said NPEC were dangerous when they threw the ball around and attacked out wide.

“Luckily, our scramble-defence under pressure was good,” Jeffries said.

“Our kicking game, with a westerly breeze that picked up during the game, gave us field position and we capitalised.”

Hooker Liam Rowlands — who now leads the Rams with injury forcing King Country centurion and former Taranaki and Heartland 15 loosehead prop Carl Carmichael into retirement this week — had good reason to savour victory.

“East Coast had a lot of momentum in the second half, which we had to fight hard to turn around,” Rowlands said.

“That game was a roller-coaster.”

Rowlands won the toss and chose an end, the pitch having remained firm despite rain over the previous five days. With 800 in attendance, Kemp kicked off for the Sky Blues.

The hosts, wearing yellow armbands as a mark of respect for Carl Carmichael, drew first blood in the seventh minute through a try to player of origin lock Josh Balme. King Country first-five Quinn Collard had found magnificent touch five metres from the right corner with the first 50-22 of the match.

Rowlands hit 1.95-metre New Zealand Marist representative Balme at No.4 in the lineout, and he hulked across to score unopposed. Collard converted for 7-0.

The Sky Blues twice put King Country under the pump on the left side of the ground (firstly down the edge from a chip-kick by fullback and flyer Kris Palmer) yet it was another 50-22 from Collard, this time over Kaupoi captain and halfback Sam Parkes, that set up another Rams assault on the goal-line.

Rowlands found blindside flanker Karney Dunster, to this point the game's best lineout forward, at No.4 and from halfback Zayn Tipping the ball went left to Collard, then back for Bellass to score 17m in-field on the inside hit. Without a conversion, the home team were 12-0 up.

In the 25th minute, play was halted after Palmer collected an accidental right knee from Tipping on the Rams' goal-line in the left corner. Palmer had slid feet-first between Tipping and Collard in pursuit of a long kick by Kemp.

The third try of the first half began and ended with Dunster. He won a King Country lineout at No.4, on the left touch, the Coast's 22, and over six phases the Rams pushed right. One push left, two shifts right and Balme gave a reverse flick-pass to Dunster. He scored eight metres to the right of the goalposts. Collard did not convert.

In the 43rd minute, the Rams scored their fourth try. From a scrum set five metres from halfway, 10m off the right touch, No.8 Kaleb Foote sent winger Conor Dobbyn down the blindside.

He was brought down by his marker, Junior Time-Taotua, on the 22, but one ruck and one shift later, Collard scored in the left corner for 22-0. Collard missed the conversion.

The Sky Blues scored first in the second half, through Kemp. From an attacking scrum set 18m from the Rams' goal-line, 17m off the left touch, they went left twice, then right, and from that ruck the ball went to Kemp, who spun between three would-be tacklers to ground the ball eight metres from the right corner, in the 47th minute. His conversion made the score 22-7.

In the 52nd minute, from 15m out in front, Kemp potted a penalty goal to put the Coast in double-figures, 22-10, and 56 minutes in, did so again from 36m out.

A minute later, from 17m off the left touch, just outside the 22, Kemp kicked his third penalty in a row to draw the Coast to within a converted try's reach of the lead: King Country 22 NPEC 16.

The Rams were awarded a penalty 61 minutes in: Collard, from centreground, then took the longest shot of the game — a 40m kick into the wind for 25-16.

The Coast hit back again. From a lineout just inside King Country's 22 left side of the ground, lock Khian Westrupp won the ball at No.5 and the visitors ran through five phases of play before losing the ball backwards. Time-Taotua once more saved the Coast's bacon in effecting a turnover at the ruck that followed.

Three phases on, Will Bolingford with a back-flick found fellow flanker Richie Green, who scored in the right corner under pressure from Collard and right wing Zacharia Wickham-Darlington.

With no conversion, it was 25-21.

If the Coast got to the King Country end of the pitch, anything might happen, and the Rams knew it. So in the 73rd minute, they seized the moment.

The last thrilling sequence began with a stupendous 50m Kemp drop-kick to restart play from his own goal-line. The Rams plugged away upfield twice before Rowlands made a storming run and passed left to reserve loosehead prop Charlie Henare, who slid across two metres to the left of the posts. Collard converted for 32-21.

The game was well-run by Hawke's Bay referee Nick Hogan.

Feisty NPEC fetcher Jack Richardson produced some excellent ball at the breakdown, while his replacement Bolingford and No.8 Hoani Te Moana also gave of their best to pulverising effect. Te Moana's ball-security is superb; he made metres every time he carried the ball. He, Westrupp and loosehead prop Jody Tuhaka played great, hard, clean rugby for 82 minutes.

The Coast have competed for 80-plus minutes throughout the Heartland Championship and are playing with poise to match their flair. Case in point, the Green try: the passes given from Parkes to rake Jorian Tangaere, and from him to Kemp, and Kemp's cut-out job skipping Time-Taotua and scrum-anchor Perrin Manuel, all before the Bolingford flick, were well weighted, directed and timed.

NPEC play 10th-placed Wairarapa-Bush at Enterprise Cars Whakarua Park, Ruatoria, on Saturday.

King Country Rams 32 (Josh Balme, Carlos Bellass, Karney Dunster, Quinn Collard, Charlie Henare, tries; Collard 2 con, pen) Ngāti Porou East Coast Kaupoi 21 (Richard Green, Carlos Kemp, tries; Kemp 3 pen, con). HT: 22-0.

MVP (most valuable player) awards — King Country Rams: Carlos Bellass. Ngati Porou East Coast Kaupoi: Khian Westrupp.