IN GOOD FORM: TVC halfback Tevita Ahoafi clears the ball from the back of a scrum in last season’s East Coast club rugby final against Hikurangi. Ahoafi opened the scoring in his side’s 48-0 win against Tokomaru Bay United on Saturday. File picture, by Paul Rickard
RUGBY
Everything is under control.
Whereas Uawa have a powerhouse forward pack, Tokararangi have young blood and Hikurangi are fearless, TVC are efficient.
They are well-organised and well-disciplined, and pride themselves on their defence.
They led Tokomaru Bay United 17-0 at halftime in East Coast club rugby at Whangaparaoa on Saturday, and made it 48-0 by the finish.
Experienced captain Moana Mato has missed the past two weeks with a sprained right ankle, yet — in the absence of coach Whetu Haerewa — he ensured that the team he led to its first title, in a chaotic atmosphere, didn’t slip up at home.
“Our scrum was good and it was a fast game, but Toko played well, too; from broken play, out wide, they asked questions,” said Mato, who added that both teams were well-served by the consistency of Bay of Plenty referee Pat Rae, on exchange.
Lock Hoani Te Moana and No.8 Solomon Vaka carried the ball well for TVC, while in-form halfback Tevita Ahoafi opened the scoring with the first of his two first-half tries, seven minutes into the game.
Hooker Shane Forsyth had found game-day captain and openside flanker Manaia Nyman at the line-out 15 metres from United’s goal-line. A maul followed, then a pick-and-go rush from tighthead prop Rawiri Waititi, and Ahoafi crossed to score 15m in from the right corner.
TVC player of the day, centre Ron-Paul McRoberts, scored two excellent tries from set-piece play. Forsyth, lock Hirini Delamere, Nyman and first five-eighth Rapata Haerewa also scored. Haerewa kicked four conversions.
Nyman did a fine job as captain but due to a strained right knee, had to be replaced 10 minutes into the second half.
Loosehead prop Adam Williams, a tough skipper who led the visitors with grit, spoke of their determination.
“We stuck it out against a good team,” he said.
“Jake Williams (hooker) was our player of the day for his direct approach, ball in hand. His award was well deserved.”
Ruatoria City score their first tryIt’s done — three games into the first round, Ruatoria City have scored their first try.
Seventeen-year-old right-winger Mikaere Murray had the honour in a 14-5 loss at home to Hicks Bay.
The visitors’ loosehead prop, Dylan Biddle, scored a first-half try, which — with left-winger Pirika Pahuru-Huriwai’s conversion — gave Hicks Bay a 7-0 lead at the break.
Pahuru-Huriwai converted captain and No.8 Frank Taiapa’s try — a try eerily similar to that he produced in the Week 1 loss to United — for 14-0. In the second half — from an attacking scrum set on the opposition 22-metre line, 15m off the right sideline — Taiapa broke openside, beat four men and scored beneath the crossbar. Some players don’t score one try like that in a career; Taiapa scored two in three weeks.
Five minutes later — with a quarter of an hour left to play — Murray made history for City a week after Uawa had beaten coach Lisa Muller’s courageous unit 46-6.
“We’re still building and the game could have gone either way, but we’d have loved to pull off a win,” Muller said.
“Combinations are coming together. Up front, our props Lionel Stone (loosehead) and Pera Bishop (tighthead) pulled hard for 80 minutes, and when old head Graeme Walker came on at second five-eighth in the second half, you could see the difference his knowledge made.”
Taiapa said: “Our scrum was solid and the boys played well against a young City team. Like us, they’re rebuilding, but they always play with heart.”
City’s players of the day were lock-cum-blindside flanker Sean Aupouri and halfback CJ Fox-Campbell.
For Hicks Bay, right-winger Cleveland Taiapa — who made three try-saving tackles — got the player-of-the-day nod from his player-coach, utility forward-cum-utility back Warren Henderson.
“Cleveland had a great game,” Henderson said.
“City? They kept attacking after halftime, scored, and were unlucky not to score again.”
Henderson was impressed by Fox-Campbell’s excellent reading of the game and delighted with the high standard of referee Jimmy Green, which he put down to one of an effective official’s most important skills: the ability to communicate clearly.
Ref James Palmer commendedBig ticker . . . Waiapu have done it hard for three weeks. They have faced up to the big Uawa crew, 2017 champions TVC, and on Saturday a rampant Tokararangi (81-0), and they are highly regarded by men who don’t gush, but recognise backbone.
“We’ve got a lot of respect for Waiapu,” Tokararangi coach Morgan Wirepa Jr said.
“This rugby is family on family. Also with the new rules, there’s a lot for everybody to learn — so well done to ref James Palmer for giving the right messages to both teams before and during the game. We’d been working on our discipline all week, and it paid off: no yellow (or red) cards for us!”
Tokararangi’s try-scorers were first-five Pamona Samupo (2 tries), left-winger William Martin (2), fullback Teina Potae (2), blindside flanker Manahi Brooking, openside flanker Chance Hale, No.8 Anton King, player-of-the-day second-five Te Kooti Kingi, centre Phoenix Brown, right-winger Te Aho Haenga and reserve right-winger Piripi Abraham. Captain and halfback Israel Brown kicked five conversions with Haenga, Brooking and Abraham kicking one conversion apiece. The halftime score was 45-0.
Waiapu coach Kahu Waitoa noted the solidity of his young tighthead prop Jesse Haenga, hard tackling of lock Andrew Kennett, the commitment of flankers Rowan Haenga and Rory Waitoa, and the strong running of player-of-the-day No.8 Rihara Houia.
'Tokararangi had too much pace for us'“Tokararangi had too much pace for us,” Waitoa said.
“Still, our first-five, Prince Tangaere, did well with what ball we got and (left-winger) Grayson Mauheni came close to making it three tries in three games.”
Tangaere made some superb tackles but Waiapu captain and loosehead prop Frank Manuel nominated centre Lyndon Gray as having made the hit of the day — on the dangerous Samupo — in the second half.
From just outside his own 22, the Tokararangi first-five had made a break 15m off the left-side touch. Gray came from behind — and from the far side of the ground — to bring Samupo down 10m short of the goal-line.
“We had lots of chances ourselves, but we just couldn’t get that last pass to stick,” said Manuel, whose opposite, Brown — like coach Wirepa — acknowledged the game’s physicality.
“They made us work hard. It was intense, and we’ve got at least five sore players. We’ll have to see how things are looking for next week.”