Axed Magpie Hika Elliot displayed his versatility and inspiration as Tamatea caused a huge upset in Saturday's opening round of Hawke's Bay's Maddison Trophy premier club rugby competition.
Playing at blindside flanker the Chiefs and former All Black hooker produced a player-of-the-match performance as Hawke's Bay Seafoods Tamatea walloped 2011 champions Tanalised Napier Pirate Rugby and Sports 46-17 at Park Island. It was the side's best performance in seven years.
"It was my first time at six. I got a few turnovers and I made some runs. It was an awesome game ... the boys stepped it up against a quality team," Elliot said afterwards.
"I knew at training earlier in the week we were heading in the right direction. We got the fundamentals right. Everyone expected us to play touch but we can be proud of our offence and our defence was really good too," Elliot explained.
Pirate manager Murray Kennedy agreed Elliot was an inspiration to his side's opponents but the hosts should have counteracted that.
"The more we tried the more balls we dropped and the more passes we missed. After the game we spent a long time asking ourselves why we haven't improved," Kennedy said before singling out winger Nick Mogford, lock Michael Allardice and second five-eighth Jackson Neilson as the pick of the host players.
Taradale 70 Clive 7
Elliot's Chiefs teammate Dan Waenga played the second half of this match at second five-eighth for Carters Frame and Truss Taradale in their 12 tries to one romp on home turf.
Waenga starts his two-year contract with French club Biarritz in a fortnight and Taradale officials hope they may get another outing from Waenga before he departs. Locks Angello Mufana and Reon Watts and No8 Kaleb Sweet were all prominent for the Mighty Maroons in their demolition job.
Havelock North 24 NOBM 21
Progressive Meats Havelock North coach Tom Blake was proud of the manner his troops maintained their unbeaten run with this club day victory at Anderson Park.
"After our Nash Cup final win last week we knew it was going to be tough against a side which have won their last seven games. We hung in there for the win," Blake said.
The score was 21-all when the villagers fullback and player-of-the-match Ihaia West kicked what proved to be a matchwinning penalty seven minutes from the final whistle. West missed just one of his six attempts at goal.
Tighthead prop Brendon Edmonds and winger-centre Levi Armstrong were other valuable contributors to the villagers course. Winger Migao Lauano celebrated his 150th outing for Hawke's Bay Insurances Limited Napier Old Boys Marist with a try.
Lauano joined hooker Eugene Gerrard and No8 Mark Abbott as the best of the visitors. Their coach Mike Warren said a poor start proved costly but he was pleased with the way they bounced back and won the second half 11-6.
"Our set piece play was dominant and considering we were on the wrong end of a one-sided penalty count we had to be pleased," Warren added.
NTOB 29 Hastings 23
A neck injury collected by IMS Payroll Hastings Rugby and Sports winger Tolu Lalagaaia forced this game to be transferred to an adjacent ground at Elwood Park.
Tech Group of Companies Napier Technical's superior second half effort was the key to their win after an even first half saw the score locked at 15-all. First five-eighth Tamati Samuels produced a player-of-the-match performance for Tech.
Hooker Josh Te Whata-Colley and lock Darren Deely had huge workrates in the winning pack. Winger Ioane Ioane and flankers Tom Burns and Jack Crasborn all made Hastings co-coach Karl Jones' MVP list. This was the third time this season his team had scored 23 points in a game and lost.
MAC 35 Central 15
Central manager Tony Lepelaars was again lamenting a poor second half from his winless side on Saturday.
"It's the same story as last week. We were right in the game for the first half but dropped away in the second ... it's disappointing," Lepelaars said referring to the fact his team trailed 15-10 at halftime in the match at Flaxmere's Ron Giorgi Park. Hooker Jesse MacDonald's player-of-the-match display for MAC included two tries.