“But that won’t be easy. Pirates have a lot more premier experience than we have. It’ll be a tough game.
“The thing is, we’ve laid the foundation for next season. We’ve played a lot of young guys who will all have benefited from the experience . . . guys like Larry Fleming, Fagan Ruru, Ra Marshall and Tulsa Kaui.
“The senior players — Geoff Pari, Tapu Dixon and Mario Counsell — have led by example, as has Kimihia Matiaha, who was outstanding today. Neal Rutherford was another who played really well; then you have TK Tane and the Campbell brothers, Sandy and Sonny.
“I could go on and on, but I’m proud of all the guys this season.”
Enterprise Cars OBM got off to a good start, with unconverted tries to halfback Willy Grogan, who showed good strength after the OBM forwards put pressure on the Waikohu defence, and prop Dan Marsh, who broke a couple of tackles following a ruck.
Dixon kicked a penalty for Waikohu, who went to the break 12-2 behind.
OBM coach Stu Blair said his side probably bombed a few tries in the first half, but apart from that they played well in slippery conditions.
He named George Halley, who started on the left wing before taking over from Grogan, as his man of the match.
Not far behind were loosies James Rutene and Lynden Manuel.
“James just keeps on doing what he does best, and that’s taking the ball up, tackling, covering and supporting. Lynden had another stormer. He’s deceptively strong and gets us a lot of turnover ball.”
First five-eighth Jake Holmes and winger Vonijasi Dencaucau completed the OBM scoring with six pointers, both converted by Holmes, before referee Paul Brown awarded Waikohu a penalty try, with an automatic conversion.
OBM 28 (Willie Grogan, Dan Marsh, Jake Holmes, Vonijasi Dencaucau tries; Holmes 2 con).
Waikohu 10 (Penalty try, Tapu Dixon pen).
HT: OBM 12-2.
YMP coach Reihana Wyllie was not happy despite his side’s 52-22 victory over Pirates at the Rectory on Saturday.
“We talked about not being complacent before the match but we were under the pump for the first 25 minutes and Pirates deservedly scored a good try (through Devonte Martin),” the Farmvets YMP coach said.
“Even though we came back to lead 26-8 at halftime, we weren’t playing the way I would have liked.
“There was little structure in our play — it was like we were playing sevens and I’m expecting a lot better when we play Ngatapa next week.
“Full credit to Pirates. They had nothing to lose and came out and took the game to us.”
One player to escape the Wyllie critique was midfielder Mangu Kemp.
“Isaiah Leach (hooker) scored two tries and was our player of the day and he played well, but I was really pleased with Mangu’s game.
“He tackled hard, ran straight and his kicking game was the best I’ve seen from him. He was right up there with Isaiah.”
Wyllie said the return of loosie Chayse Skudder (who dotted down two tries), after a long layoff with injury, was a bonus “especially with the playoffs coming up in two weeks”.
Kevin Hollis Glass Pirates coach Steve Smith said he was stoked with the performance.
“I’m just blown away by the guys,” he said.
“We’ve been out of the running for top-four for a while now but the guys who front up give it everything they’ve got. Devonte gets better with every game. It was good to get TK (Moeke) back and scoring a try after he’d missed a few games. With the injuries we’ve had, we made Koro Miringaorangi captain for the past two games and he leads by example.”
YMP 52 (Isaiah Leach 2, Mike Kemp 2, Chayse Skudder 2, Manu Gates, Mangu Kemp tries; Willie Brown 2 con).
Pirates 22 (Devonte Martin, TK Moeke, Rob Broughton; Fox 2 con).
HT: 26-8 (YMP).
