Terekia, Tiko to bring up their 50th

ALL BY MYSELF: Waikohu's Tristan Morten comes out of a ruck with the ball from a sea of OBM blue and white during a Poverty Bay premier club rugby first-round clash won by Waikohu 38-20. The two sides square off again in a Round 2 top-of-the-table game at the Oval on Saturday. Waikohu, unbeaten this season, lead the standings on 34 points, with OBM five points behind. Picture by Paul RIckard

Rikki Terekia and Jale Tiko are good men.

That fact is more important than their being good rugby players or even great servants of their club — which both undoubtedly are.

Captain and No.8 Terekia and centre Tiko will play their 50th games for Enterprise Cars OBM when they come up against defending champions and Lee Bros Shield holders GT Shearing Waikohu at the Oval this Saturday.

All games in Week 8 of Civil Project Solutions Premier Rugby start at 2.45pm. The games are OBM v Waikohu on Oval 1, Kevin Hollis Glass Pirates v Larsawn Ngatapa on Oval 2, and East Coast Farm Vets YMP v High School Old Boys on Barry Park 1.

The competition is heating up three weeks into the second round. Unbeaten first-round Premier Cup winners Waikohu constitute either the biggest feather to put in one's cap or the biggest bull in the round-up.

The second is not gentle.

But with two guys loyal to the red, white and blue passing a milestone this weekend, OBM club chairman Blair Gilroy — who could think of no better excuse for dual celebrations than to topple the No.1 team in the grade — said: “Rikki's top shelf in every way. He has mana — the respect of his peers — and he leads them with pride.

“Jale is a reliable, dependable bloke who gets on with any job without complaint: he's a great asset. Both guys understand our mantra, ‘United We Stand'.”

Waikohu v OBM is a top-of-the-table clash, but this time around the Ngatapa-Pirates game could be a different beast from the 14-5 victory to Ngatapa under lights at Paddy's Park on May 7 — with ducks to be shot the morning after.

Pirates have every reason to be aggressive, having pushed both Ngatapa and HSOB hard this season. Their opponents are a far better side than YMP's 50-31 blitz against them in Week 7 suggests. It is worth repeating: last Saturday, YMP were untouchable. Ngatapa's regular captain, blindside flanker Dan Law, is still out with injury, so fullback Matt Raleigh will lead the visitors on Oval 2. Ngatapa's Heith Hawea, a considered, thoughtful coach, wishes to see an improvement in his outfit's defensive structures.

HSOB are steeling themselves for the up-tempo-with-an-edge approach of YMP. HSOB captain Tamanui Hill and Hayden Walters-Stuart, fresh off their 50th and 100th games, will know that a quick game is a good game from YMP's point of view. Whether to look to match or try to counter it is no ordinary question.