Hill said it was pleasing to see hard work pay off for his boys, while it was plain from comments made by Contract Consultants HSOB head coach Danny Boyle that he and his team knew what they were in for going in.
“Conditions dictated that the game would be an arm wrestle between the forward packs,” Boyle said.
“Pirates are dangerous with the ball in hand but our fitness is an advantage, and our defence won us the game.”
McGuire opened the scoring in the seventh minute, and Mackay converted for 7-0.
Bolingford struck back for Pirates after a quarter of an hour; the score then was 7-5 to HSOB.
In the 29th minute, Jenkins scored a try which, with Mackay’s conversion, gave HSOB a 14-5 lead at the break.
Ten minutes into the second half, Hill got a try, converted by Mackay, for 21-5.
Captains Hill and Bolingford are among the strongest, most willing back-rowers in the competition. As the slog wore on, these two men redoubled their efforts.
In the 58th minute, HSOB hooker McGuire scored his second try — without conversion, but the fact is that Mackay’s goal-kicking was an important factor in this HSOB victory.
He has improved, and the side is in good heart. The 29-7 loss to YMP might have made the heads of lesser players drop, yet the 100th game of loosehead prop Russell Burns a week ago inspired them to get to within six points of Waikohu.
In the 79th minute, second-five Paora Mullany — Pirates’ own player of the day — scored the only backs’ try of the six tries scored in the match, to make the final score HSOB 26 Pirates 10.
Bolingford said he was proud of the effort his side put in.
“It was a good game of rugby, and we were in it. We defended well at times, put together attacking phases also, but there were mistakes and the odd thing went against us.
“HSOB capitalised when it was critical to do so.”
Pirates head coach Willie Waitoa turned out at lock, the former Lee Brothers Shield-winning Buccaneers captain on Saturday alongside his 17-year-old son, Kauri, who made his first start for the club at blindside flanker.
“That was a hard game to play,” Willie Waitoa said.
“Robert Broughton’s normally a hooker — we had to start him at halfback; Nathan Te Whata-McClutchie is our reserve blindside flanker — he started on the left wing. But they held their own. The conditions being wet, we kept things tight.
“Kauri was solid, stole a couple of lineouts at the front and made two try-saving tackles.
“Willie B, Paora, centre Rasari Solomoni all made big runs. What we need is consistency of attendance at training. The upside of having a Senior 1 side is being able to have at least four of them on the bench. Our Senior 1 fullback-cum-second-five Moala Lasiki came on at the break and the Senior 1 team’s captain, No.8 Petelo Tuitakau, we played at lock in the second half.
“Pirates’ game-day effort as a club is massive, and we’ve got to look after our Senior 1s — especially the younger players.”
Enterprise Cars OBM 7 GT Shearing Waikohu 19, Contract Consultants HSOB 26 Kevin Hollis Glass Pirates 10, Larsawn Ngatapa 20 East Coast Farm Vets YMP 17.
Tapuae Sports Club 20 Wairoa Athletic 17, YMP Bumbles 22 Advanced Tree Solutions-Kevin Hollis Pirates 19.
Harvest Transport Ngatapa.
Gisborne Boys’ High School 10 St Peter’s College 21.
GBHS 7 St Peter’s College 34.
