One of Wairoa rugby's tireless contributors — Tapuae player-coach Wayne Hema, who with Turuki Tahuri and Paul Morunga had worked with the Wairoa Combined team leading into the Turanga-Wairoa exchange — was the referee at the Sports Grounds yesterday.
Hema of Tapuae (Roseland Tavern Tapuae, Charteris Choppers Wairoa Athletic and Nuhaka V8s being the three clubs from which Wairoa Combined were drawn) is a man who works as hard for rugby's future as he does for its present.
Last Friday he said: “Turuki, our head coach, has the team looking sharp, and ready to display Wairoa rugby. He's pushing players to express their skill-set and show our rawness and roughness.”
The months of planning for this rugby weekend paid off. Ngatapa Senior 1 coach Kohi Waihi, who ran the Turanga Combined team at Nuhaka, said: “These matches, this exchange, it's a great concept and it's been a good experience for players, coaches . . . everybody.
“For our boys here against Wairoa Combined, it was hard, honest rugby. Both teams came to play. The spectators got to enjoy a tight, 80-minute tussle.”
Turanga Combined veteran Pat Thomson was on Cloud 9.
“It was an absolute pearler of a game — and for us to gel, put into practice what we'd only trained twice to do was magic, unbelievable really,” the battle-scarred lock said.
“Wairoa were even tougher than I expected and both teams were still trying to get their heads around some of the new laws of rugby.
“The referee, Ben Holt, explained his rulings to us. He didn't just look to blow the whistle and he did an awesome job.”
Wairoa Combined skipper and blindside flanker Hickson Raroa was typically gracious: “The game went well and we played as we'd planned to, but we needed to do that for 80 minutes. We're happy with how we played, and hope that the score will be different next time.”
PBRFU chief executive Josh Willoughby confirmed yesterday that the plan was to run both elements of the event again in 2023.
“This was a huge day for community rugby because a union's purpose is to strengthen its community game,” he said.
“The quality of the games and hospitality of the clubs at the aftermatch functions here was special. It's something that our rugby community can be incredibly proud of.”
Of events at home, although ill-health prevented Opotiki Sports from taking on two-time premier champions GT Shearing Waikohu at Te Karaka Domain, the availability of Waikohu players to other sides benefited those clubs enormously.
For High School Old Boys, giant prop Jarryd Broughton played at loosehead and scored a hat-trick. His Waikohu teammate, hooker Tulsa Kaui, also grabbed a try for HSOB.
Every team got something out of the day. Persistence paid off for Te Teko in the second half of their clash with HSOB on ground 2 at the Oval, when left wing Pene Heihei scored the last try of the match for a scoreline of HSOB 50, “Texas” 5.
In other results, East Coast Farm Vets YMP beat Whakatane Marist 29-28 on Barry Park 1, Enterprise Cars OBM beat Paroa 54-18 on Oval 1, and Larsawn Ngatapa beat Poroporo 22-19 at Paddy's Park.
The influence of the Poroporo coach, former Bay of Plenty Steamers lock Baden Wardlaw, a dynamic player whose career was cut short by injury concerns three years ago, was to be seen in the visitors' fitness, high skill-level and controlled aggression.
Ngatapa, under the low-key but effective coaching duo of Heith Hawea and Matt Evans, have reason to be proud of a win against Poroporo.
“It was a game played in great spirit,” Hawea said.
“Poroporo were a pleasure to host, and as far as rugby goes, we're definitely taking steps in the right direction — I thought our scrum was dominant.”
Ruatoki captain and second-five David Tawhi was at the top of his game against Kevin Hollis Glass Pirates in the visitors' 38-19 win on Rectory ground No.1. On that Gisborne Boys' High School turf of superb quality, the hard-running Tawhi was an inspired performance.
Pirates captain and lock Bernard Nepe was in awe of the output of his fellow forwards, blindside flanker Michael McClutchie and reserve No.8 Paora Mullany.
Nepe is seeing premier and Senior 1 players — such as reserve first-five Henare Keepa on Saturday — step into the breach to help the club.
“We were at our best when we got fast ball on the front-foot,” Nepe said.
“And we enjoyed not just playing but also hosting Ruatoki very much.”
YMP head coach Kahu Tamatea would know that the Eastern Bay teams, having now seen and experienced the standard of CPS premier teams' fitness and play, will be well-prepared for a rematch when that time comes.
In reference to the one-point win against Whakatane Marist, Tamatea said: “We're happy with our efforts because this game gave us a chance to give some young guns a go, and to try some new combinations. Our boys did well to come back from being three tries down early in the first half.”
Behaviour from players and spectators was very good at Nuhaka and Tapuae, and in Poverty Bay.
Eastern Bay supporters and the public took in the best of the local game, the referees entered into the spirit of the occasion and the ball travelled from edge to edge, more often in hand than by way of the boot.
It was bright rugby across the board with appreciable camaraderie.
