Rugby: Win inspired by Blues hooker

Taniwha hooker and Blues player, Matt Moulds was a welcome addition to Otamatea's depleted premier side.

An inspired effort from Otamatea has helped their premier side to a 15-8 win over Old Boys Marist.

With the loss of several key leaders and playmakers during the week, the return of Matt Moulds from his Blues Super Rugby duties bolstered Otamatea's efforts as they ground out a hard-fought victory over a tough Old Boys' side.

Otamatea coach Dean Kenny was ecstatic with the return of Moulds, who has been released to play club rugby for the remainder of the season.

"The first thing I did was give him a big hug because we needed him there today and he led from the front," Kenny said.

Losing captain Shane Neville and first five Dan Hawkins to injury during the week prompted alarm bells for coach Kenny.

However, his team's pre-match jitters were dispelled with Moulds in 'mantrol' of the rebuilding Otamatea side.

"The first thing we did was make him captain," Kenny said.

"That sort of leadership is what's been lacking for a while.

"He's Super 15 - nobody's going to buck that sort of guy there and he led from the front today and I can't speak more highly of the guy."

After a heavy, 31-11, loss to an impressive Mid Northern outfit last weekend, Otamatea were glad to come out on top over an Old Boys team who have begun to shy away from their mixed start to the season.

A low scoring first half saw Old Boys take a 5-3 lead into the halftime break.

But, if sideline supporters had doubts of being in for another dry 40 minutes of rugby in the second spell, their complacency was quickly quelled.

One clear change in Otamatea's performance was their vast improvement at scrum time.

Copping a bit of flak from a strong Old Boys' scrum in the first half, Otamatea found solace in the form of big lad James Patterson taking his place on the field.

"It just solidified the whole scrum and gave us a platform to go off," Kenny said.

"I can't speak more highly of the young guys in the team. The average age in the forward pack is 22 [and] the performance of those boys was just outstanding."

Otamatea continued to lift their game after the relief of having their forward pack firing on all cylinders.

A try eight minutes from fulltime had them in a compelling position to win but it took some serious effort to close out Old Boys' in the dying stages.

"Unfortunately with 10-15 minutes to go we ended up giving away too many easy penalties," Kenny said.

"It put us under a lot of pressure and disrupted our whole game."

Nonetheless, it was a win for Otamatea who will look to regather and build a cunning plan to take on Waipu next weekend.

"It was a great effort by our boys today, now we know we can go forward," Kenny said.

"We're four and two at the moment, [now] we've got to keep winning these games.