OBM give YMP tough test

Get him up there: YMP No.8 Stuart Leach wins the ball in a line-out during the semifinal 22-7 win against OBM. YMP secured their spot in the club final this weekend where they play top-placed Waikohu. Picture by Paul Rickard

The weekend before last, YMP ran amok at Barry Park.

On Saturday, the Rikki Terekia-led Enterprise Cars OBM, having had a week to address that which needed addressing, bounced back with a tighter defence.

YMP were simply sharper, fullback Andrew Tauatevalu gave them a real edge in terms of speed out wide and their relentless use of the quick throw-in to the lineout paid huge dividends. It allowed them to stretch their opposites and put enormous pressure on individuals to tackle YMP’s speedsters one on one.

YMP played thinking man’s rugby with great fitness, focus and discipline: that is how and why they won the second semifinal 22-7.

OBM led 7-5 at halftime, won the penalty count 14-12, the lineout was 11-10 to OBM and the scrum count was 5-5, neither side conceding a loosehead at the scrum.

Referee Damien Macpherson, who — like Mark Greene — had a top game, awarded the first penalty of the match to OBM centrefield. Left-footed goal-kicker, first five-eighth Austin Brown, missed the 47-metre kick in the first minute.

YMP captain and rake Shayde Skudder won the toss and chose an end.

Though a low-scoring affair compared with Waikohu versus Ngatapa, the game didn’t lack for excitement. OBM fullback Braedyn Grant made a 50m-plus run down the left touch eight minutes into the match; 14 minutes in, Macpherson made an excellent call on a forward pass by Terekia, a back-flick he was only able to detect by virtue of his quickness and positioning.

YMP looked dangerous from the off. At the 18th minute, it was all Brown could do to drag rampaging blindside flanker Stuart Leach down short of the OBM goal-line. In the 26th minute, YMP hooker Skudder grounded the ball 10m in from the right corner. Skudder's try was not converted.

Three minutes later, OBM centre Jale Tiko was the recipient of a beautifully weighted pass from halfback Cruz Hinaki to score 12m to the right of the posts. With Brown’s conversion, OBM led 7-5 at halftime.

The grit and grind — the groundwork — had been done by both teams. OBM openside flanker Keanu Taumata was superb in winning lineout ball against the throw, and indeed all over the park.

YMP made a magnificent opening, ball in hand, with a try to Tauatevalu in the 45th minute. He converted his own try for 12-7. In the 73rd minute, first-five Mitchell Purvis scored in the left corner for 17-7, which with a conversion became 19-7. In the 77th minute, Tauatevalu kicked a penalty goal for 22-7, and a grand final berth for YMP was secure.

In between the points scored few and far between, the tight, tough and uncompromising rugby courage of too many players to name shone through.

YMP head coach Kahu Tamatea said: “The game went as expected. Both forward packs tried to gain dominance to let the backs fly. We had a disrupted build-up. I was proud of the young boys who stepped in and our bench added awesome impact.”

OBM captain and No.8 Rikki Terekia thanked head coach Clint Pirihi, manager Nathan Gilroy and long-serving OBM club captain Tom Crosby for their above-and-beyond service to the club over, in the case of Crosby, almost 30 years.

Of the game Terekia said: “Our forwards went well, and showed a lot of improvement at scrum-time. The boys also did a much better job of shutting down their counter-attack this time around.”