Hikurangi capitalise on errors to claim win

The ability to capitalise on turnovers proved to be the big difference between Hikurangi and Kamo as the Red and Blacks recorded the biggest winning margin of the opening round of the PGG Wrightson Southern Districts Premier Grade competition on Saturday.
Hikurangi finished deserved winners 29-5 but the scoreline flattered the home side with both sides fairly even for much of the game - except in the area of ball control.
More than once Kamo lost the ball in attacking positions and were punished  by long range tries.
"Turnovers were a real bonus for us, a couple of passes and we were away and that's the way it happened for us," Hikurangi captain Tim Dow said after the match.
He was pleased with the size of the win after an uneasy start.
"We were pretty nervous out there because we didn't know how we'd go - we haven't had a pre-season game - but we were happy enough with the way things turned out."
Dow and No 8 Matt White caused problems for Kamo, often emerging from a maul or ruck after pilfering the ball to feed Rhyan Caine, who invariably engineered another Hikurangi rampage upfield or passed to Cass Walding to clear the danger.
Caine opened the scoring in the 16th minute - against the run of play - after Mike Newman had broken down the left wing passing to Henry Foy, whose clever inside pass to Caine wrongfooted the cover and saw him cross the line untouched.
Hikurangi's forwards pressed home their advantage 10 minutes later when hooker turned openside Mike Paniora crashed over from close range. Just before the break, blindside flanker Eric Wihongi staked a claim for a backline place  by sprinting 40m down the left flank to make it 15-0 - once again cashing in from a Kamo turnover.
Kamo went back to basics after the break and forced their way back into the game, with Northland prop Matt Wallis finishing off a period of controlled pressure by the forwards on the Hikurangi line.
The pressure  continued  but the Hikurangi defence proved solid and Kamo were stopped just short of the line on a number of occasions. In one such instance the ball travelled more than 80m and through several sets of hands in a dazzling breakout to end up in Caine's for his second try, snuffing out Kamo's slim chances.
Caine turned provider for the final try and set up Stu Cooper with  Dow making the most of his captaincy by firing kicker Walding,  who'd had a day to forget anyway, and slotting the last two conversions from in front of the posts.
Hikurangi coach Stu Cook's game plan  was spot-on. They negated any advantage Kamo had in the forwards by using the short lineout whenever possible and used three loosehead props  to  neutralise the destructive scrummaging of Matt Wallis.
For Kamo, Wallis and Cameron Goodhue were particularly impressive with rookie hooker Cody Chapman showing  promise.
The new interpretations of the rules caused referee Zeniff Haika to clock up the penalties.
"We were giving away a lot of penalties in the second half especially," Dow said.
"That ruck ball rule is a lot different, if you are tackling a player and already holding the ball as you are going to ground and there's no neural signal in your brain that's ever going to tell you to let go of the ball so that'll take a bit of adjusting to."

Hikurangi 29 (R Caine 2, M Paniora, E Wihongi, S Cooper tries; T Dow 2 con) Kamo 5 (M Wallis try)