A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.
It’s the roughest, toughest way to spend a Sunday afternoon.
Uawa drew 5-5 with Waikohu to retain both the Barry Cup and the Jim Ruru Memorial Cup in front of a crowd of 500 at Uawa Domain.
The half-time score was nil-all, powerhouse prop Laman Davies drawing first blood for the home team with a try five minutes after the resumption.
Waikohu left-winger Matatua Ruru tied the scores with a try on fulltime.
The effect Uawa lock Reggie Namana’s desperate charge had on the visitors’ first five-eighth Ethine Reeves as he tried to convert Ruru’s try is already part of Barry Cup folklore. What cannot be disputed is that the ball rose higher than the posts and dropped like a stone two feet to the left of the crossbar.
Waikohu played with the wind in the first half. Poverty Bay referee Damien Macpherson controlled his first Barry Cup fixture, a game that Uawa head coach Tip Nukunuku rated the hardest challenge they had faced in two years.
“We were under the pump for long periods but we’ve been working hard on our set plays, and we did what we trained to do.”
Uawa captain BJ Sidney said forwards Harley Phillips and Hayden Pardoe ran hard.
The Barry Cup meant a lot, not just to the team but also the community.
“We’ll heal up this week and defend it against Ruatoria next Sunday,” Sidney said.
He and blindside flanker Hayden Pardoe were magnificent in defence. Early in the game, Pardoe brought down a rampaging Tapu Dixon and 10 seconds later made a jarring tackle on fearsome prop Toru Noanoa two metres out from the goal-line.
Sidney held up slippery second-five Rawiri Marshall under the posts and it was the Uawa captain who started the move for his team’s try.
Five minutes into the second half, midfield on the 22 (Macpherson having penalised Dixon), Sidney took a tap-kick and gave a clearing pass to Tane McGuire, who freed the ball for Davies to score in the right corner.
Waikohu’s try also followed a tap-penalty. Centrefield on halfway, Reeves ran the ball with support from Russell Burns to his left. Burns found Ruru who, with strong technique, surged low to score in the left corner and give Reeves the opportunity to take the Barry Cup.
Neither side dominated field position. While the possession stakes favoured Waikohu in the first half, the forwards were evenly matched. Uawa had the bigger pack but Waikohu were resilient and ran aggressively.
Although Sidney named Dixon player of the day, Waikohu lock TK Tane also had a superb game. He more than held his own against taller opposition in Namana and Uawa openside flanker Rikki Kernohan.
Uawa No.8 Harley Phillips set the tone for contact from his first carry, breaking the advantage line.
But what the game might best be remembered for is both teams’ desperation in defence — Pardoe on Reeves in the first half, Kernohan reeling Burns in from behind in the second half, Uawa reserve forward Ben Parkes on Waikohu lock Tristan Morten, Uawa prop Dan Knubley on Noanoa as the game reached fever pitch.
Both Reeves and McGuire missed difficult shots at goal in the second half. McGuire unerringly found quality touch on the grandstand side of the domain but the fitful breeze made goal-kicking difficult.
“It was an awesome game,” Waikohu coach Tahi Hiroki said.
“The defence from both teams was solid but neither side really settled because it all happened at 100 miles an hour.”
Waikohu captain Geoff Pari said the scoreboard was right — the teams could not be separated.
“Full credit to Uawa. They were hard. BJ showed his class. I wouldn’t expect anything less.”
The passion, flavour and spirit of Barry Cup rugby have to be experienced to be believed.
At Uawa, the closeness of the crowd to the action, the ball speed and the degree of physical contact are arguably several notches up on normal club rugby.
Both teams play with desperation from kick-off, with no feeling-out process. The intensity is high, with the opportunity to take a spell on the sideline and then return to action.
Uawa have held the Jim Ruru Memorial Cup since they took it from Whatatutu in 1997.
Macpherson and assistant referees Royce Maynard and Colin Shanks were exemplary in their management of the game and control of the substitutions. They contributed to a spectacle in which feelings ran high, for the right reasons — sub-union pride and love of hard competition.
Uawa will host Ruatoria at Uawa Domain at 2.30pm on Sunday in the next challenge.