Come at me: OBM rake Ngahiwi Manuel prepares to be tackled by YMP prop Nehe Papuni in the club rugby match on Saturday. OBM overcame and won over YMP 27-19. Picture by Liam Clayton
OBM collected their second trophy of the season and sent top-of-table Waikohu a warning with a 27-19 win over YMP in premier club rugby on Saturday.
High School Old Boys picked up their first win of the competition, defeating Pirates by the same margin (27-19).
Enterprise Cars OBM captain and blindside flanker-cum-hooker Rikki Terekia's men claimed the Johnny Matenga Memorial Trophy with their win over YMP and jumped into second place on the table.
They added it to the Keith Webber Memorial Shield they won for beating Pirates in Week 4.
“That was a physical game; there are many sore bodies,” Terekia said of the YMP clash.
“But even when we were under pressure, we kept our structure.
“I'm most stoked at these boys' willingness to grind everything out. We knew that it was going to be a battle and we stuck at it for 80-plus minutes.”
YMP rake Shayde Skudder is, like Terekia, a third-year skipper in premier rugby. If the hallmark of Terekia's leadership style is energy, Skudder's is industriousness.
Skudder paid tribute to YMP's Taste One Most Valuable Player, openside flanker Isaiah Leach, for having worked hard throughout the match.
“OBM played with more intent than us and deserved the win,” Skudder said.
The other MVPs chosen by the Poverty Bay Rugby Football Union in Week 5 were Keanu Taumata (OBM, openside flanker), Jacob Leaf (Waikohu, second five-eighth), James Hughes-Lock (Ngatapa, No.8), Fletcher Scammell (HSOB, lock) and Paora Mullany (Pirates, No.8).
On a cool day with 500 in attendance at the Johnny Matenga Memorial Trophy match on Oval 1, OBM starting hooker Ngahiwi Manuel had a tremendous match, scoring twice in a game that had it all — lineout drives, furious pace and crossfield bombs . . . the precursors to tries 1, 4 and 6.
Skudder won the toss and chose an end, Terekia chose to kick off.
OBM made a bright start to Week 5 with the first of Manuel's tries. From an attacking lineout eight metres from the right corner, Manuel found Taumata at No.4. The drive that came next ended with Manuel scoring five metres infield.
A 35m penalty goal by left-footed OBM first-five Austin Brown made it 8-0 after 20 minutes and, in the 32nd minute, Manuel scored his second try.
From an attacking lineout nine metres from the left corner, Taumata again won great ball at No.4 and Manuel once more scored from the maul, seven metres infield. Brown converted for 15-0 and YMP stood at a crossroads.
They were never going to buckle, so fought back. Despite the wealth of lineout ball won by Taumata and athletic lock Harawira Kahukura, the bruising nature of YMP's midfield defence was such that OBM had to take big knocks for every metre made.
In the 44th minute, YMP were awarded a penalty by referee Mark Greene and, in a gutsy move, opted to scrummage.
The platform set a metre to the left of OBM's posts, six metres from the goal-line, Skudder's crew — through mighty fullback Andrew Tauatevalu and feisty No.6 Seth Lundon — probed on the right side of the ground. The third man up, Stuart Leach, went at the line hard from two metres to score 16m in from the corner. Tauatevalu converted and OBM led 15-7 at halftime.
YMP struck first after the resumption. In the 47th minute, Stuart Leach at No.4 got the jump on his taller opposite Gabe Te Kani at a lineout six metres into YMP territory, right touchline. Promising halfback Kayleb Te Whare sent first Lundon and then Skudder at OBM centrefield. Skudder surged to halfway. From the ruck, Te Whare sent the ball left and two passes later, Tauatevalu accelerated over halfway and ran 50m to score in the corner.
Tauatevalu converted his own try, but OBM were still up 15-14.
In the 59th minute, YMP took the lead for the first time in the match. From a scrum set 21m from OBM's goal-line, seven metres off the left touch, Te Whare went right. Three players touched the ball to great effect before right wing Genesis Bartlett-Tamatea beat three OBM cover defenders to score in the corner for 19-15.
No conversion followed.
In the 65th minute, at an attacking platform set five metres off the left touch, 21m from YMP's goal-line, fullback-cum-halfback Cruz Hinaki fed the OBM scrum. OBM then moved the ball from right to left, lost it backwards twice, but over 15 phases, got to a spot 11m from the goal-line, eight metres to the left of the posts. Hinaki cleared the ruck to the left-footed Grant, who —from the middle of the park — put up a crossfield bomb.
Burly reserve right wing Rangi Hinaki caught the ball on the run and barrelled Tauatevalu out of his way to score. That try to Hinaki was not converted, and OBM led 20-19.
OBM's one-point lead would last until the 83rd minute when, from a “Golden Oldies” (no-pushing scrum) set 15m off the left touch, 12m from the YMP goal-line, OBM sniped twice down the short side before unleashing big tighthead prop Myles Muir-Lardelli-Tawa.
The scrum-anchor scored.
Cruz Hinaki defied the YMP chase team to convert the seventh and last try of the match for a final score of 27-19.
Referee Greene and assistant referee Aaron Brown, with the assistance of both captains, did a fine of running the game smoothly.
As hard and punishing as the tackles made by the likes of Stuart and Isaiah Leach were — and as hard as the likes of Ngahiwi Manuel, Rangi Hinaki and Lardelli-Muir-Tawa were to stop with the ball in hand — OBM versus YMP contained no niggle.
No yellow or red cards were issued.
YMP head coach Kahu Tamatea said: “As always against OBM, it was a tough encounter. We made basic mistakes but we also did many good things: our play at set-piece has really improved.
“With OBM, I was impressed by how they bounced straight back every time after we'd scored points.”