CLUB RUGBY - Otamatea keep it together

It has become an excuse for rugged rural rugby folk to be seen with their handle of the sponsor's finest in one hand and their dinky little mobile phones in the other.
The trouble on Saturday, though, was that the text message they were waiting for caused many to choke on their beers.
Because The Northern Advocate weekly rugby results text message, sent from our sports office every Saturday afternoon, started: Otamatea 12, Marist 7.
The luckless Otamatea Hawks, keepers of the Northland-wide rugby cellar for so many seasons it has long since stopped being funny, conjured up their first win of the season over last year's beaten finalists.
It was such a surprise that, not long after the original text message sailed through the ether at hyperspeed and arrived at various mobile phones with a little alert tune, almost every recipient returned the favour with one of these text jargon replies: woteva, bllsht, or wot!
So as confirmation for all you disbelieving Jonahs, read this: Otamatea, thanks to a converted try from Mike Tovine and a second touchdown to skipper Gareth Nichol, beat Marist, who only managed one try to Josh Levi in the final act of the game.
Played in the mud at Kaiwaka, it was a result greeted with a mixture of relief and excitement by Otamatea's fans and players alike, and provided proof that this club is not about to surrender their place in the flagship club competition this season without one hell of a fight.
Having been walloped, shellacked, boxed, buffeted, clouted, smacked, swatted and thumped by every team so far this season, Otamatea proved they still have some spirit.
At least that's how team captain Gareth Nichol described it.
"Right now I feel bloody relieved. We played well in the conditions, probably to the conditions actually, and got there," Nichol said.
"We kept it tight but Marist tried to throw it around and didn't succeed. We have slowly been building a bit of momentum and we have kept some faith in each other, kept working and got there," he said. "I think we deserve this."
Too right.
Not only that, but the result will keep everyone on their toes at either end of the points table as Marist are now in some danger of slipping into the bottom two and subsequently into the relegation zone while the race for a slot in the semifinals this season keeps taking unexpected twists.
On Saturday, Mid Northern regathered their mojo with an impressive 34-8 victory over Awanui at Awanui, the return of David Holwell and the form of veteran flanker Adrian Going providing the impetus.
Hikurangi also slipped one step closer to the semifinal safety zone when they staged a second half revival to beat Kamo 23-20 at Kamo, securing the win after Dixie Harris ploughed his way over from a lineout drive.
Hora Hora too are now all but guaranteed of the chance to defend their title as they hung tough to beat Wellsford in a cliffhanger at Hora Hora 11-10.
But you can't yet discount Waipu, who were 13-3 winners over the Western Sharks in the Friday night fixture at Dargaville.
But while the drama keeps unfolding in the Northland Wide competition, confusion is reigning in the battle to win promotion into the banner competition.
Until now several teams, Whangarei Old Boys, City, Moerewa and Kerikeri, were poised to battle it out for the right to play a promotion-relegation series against the bottom two teams in the Northland Wide.
But on Saturday, Kerikeri announced they were not interested and Moerewa began fudging their stance, leaving Whangarei Old Boys and City to ponder the possibility of three weeks of inactivity before they get a shot at the big time.
Suffice to say that the last minute developments have left a sour taste with all concerned. Old Boys and City are frustrated by the untimely hiatus. Kerikeri and Moerewa are somewhat bemused.
It hasn't painted some Northland rugby administrators in very good light either, especially those involved with teams in the Bay of Islands.
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