Rugby: Horahora lose close match

Western Sharks' prop Inoke Sevina is well taken care of by the Hora Hora defence on Saturday. Photo / John Stone

Another close loss is hurting Horahora but coach Doug Te Puni reckons a win is not far away for his young squad in the Bayleys Southern Districts' Premier competition.

Buoyed by the home crowd, Horahora staged a late fightback on Saturday before capitulating 20-15 to the Western Sharks which opted to play a territorial game and forced the hosts into mistakes.

Heavy underfoot conditions contributed to a string of handing errors from both sides but more so by Horahora.

Horahora's Warren Dunn on the charge against Western Sharks. Photo / John Stone

Although Western Sharks played well enough, were moderately slick and creative, they were error prone and erratic but managed to grind a win with three tries to to Horahora's two.

The match had ample venom in the forwards' physical exchanges for both sides but the Western Sharks' superior scrum and lineout, in particular, dictated their attack.

Their backs kept it mostly simple - hard, straight running with little in the way of risky passing. They made mistakes but not the the sort that were overly costly.

Western Sharks pinned Horahora in its own half for most of the first spell and used big Fijian prop Inoke Sevina and tireless No8 Matt Matich well in rucks and mauls.

It was Horahora that scored its first try 14 minutes in through centre Warren Dunn after his team took a tap off ruck infringement by the Western Sharks.

The visitors replied seven minutes later when Matich peeled off from a scrum metres away from the Horahora tryline and spotted a gap to dive over.

Fijian winger Mika Saurara profited from a grubber kick on the right flank before offloading to fullback Tony Stokes for the Western Sharks' second try on the stroke of half time.

Stokes directed play well with his long raking kicks and constantly probed holes in the Horahora defence.

Western Sharks' prop Justin Freidrich nearly scored the third try but referee Boris Jurlina ruled the ball was held up and awarded the visitors a 5m scrum.

The boys from the west coast upped the ante in the second half and Matich got on the scoresheet with a brilliant run down the middle just three minutes after halftime.

He had no business scoring from where he did, but he was fast, elusive and determined and that allowed him to drift, step and fend his way through multiple defenders.

Western Sharks extended their lead with a penalty after a Horahora player was penalised for not rolling away in a ruck.

Dunn got his second try for Horahora and narrowed the score 20-12 before the hosts added a penalty on the stroke of fulltime.

"I think it was all they could give. The boys are still gelling together and I am happy with the way they played today," Te Puni said.

He said they missed four players through injury.

With just two wins from 10 games, Te Puni said his side would have work on securing close games.

Western Sharks' mentor Mark Russell welcomed the win, saying Horahora was a tough ground to win games at.