Thames Valley give Coast reality check

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

NGATI Porou East Coast were given a reality check of just how tough this season’s Heartland Championship is going to be when they were thumped 64-14 by Thames Valley in Ruatoria on Saturday.

“We took a belting but I’d rather it happen now and not in two weeks when the championship starts,” co-coach Troy Para said.

“You have to keep the score in perspective. We put out basically an all-local team, whereas Valley played all their loan players.

“They were also coming off a Ranfurly Shield challenge and, speaking to them afterwards, they said they had kept the squad together for training and it showed in their play.

“Despite the scoreline, we defended well until the last 20 minutes when we gave everyone a run, which was the whole idea of the game.

“We’re not happy — how can you be when you concede 64 points — but we got a clearer picture of what we need to do.”

Para and co-coach Wayne Ensor, who missed the game due to being in Tauranga for a wedding, said they wanted to give fringe players an opportunity to show what they could do.

“Some took the opportunity, others didn’t,” Para said.

“For them it was an eye-opener.”

Despite being up against “two giant 6ft 7in and 6ft 5in locks”, Rikki Kernohan and Solomone Vaka took a lot of ball and that was encouraging.

“Hone Haerewa (openside) also won ball at the back of the lineout but the attacking side of things let us down,” Para said.

“We’ll be looking for an improved performance against Eastern Bay of Plenty (at Tolaga Bay) on Saturday.”

Para said Coast captain and halfback Sam Parkes played well, and scored a try.

“Unfortunately it wasn’t such a great game for his brother Ben, who took quite a knock to his knee. At this stage it looks bad but we’ll know more once the swelling goes down.”

Although it was not the result they would have wanted, 47-year-old Horace Lewis and his son Caleb (19) got to play together in a Sky Blue jersey.

“Both came on in the second half,” Para said.

Hooker Kareti Palmer bagged the Coast’s other six-pointer, while his brother Kris kicked a conversion.

Uawa made no contest of their Barry Cup clash on Sunday, beating Tokomaru Bay 86-8.