Centre Simon Latu was the hero and the villain last night as his Whangarei Marist side caused a huge upset by beating the Irish Wolfhounds 24-22 at Okara Park last night.
Latu was in the thick of the action all night, scoring two tries and setting up a third for Jack
Walker with a deft no-look inside pass, ? la Benji Marshall. It seemed uncanny then that he was only on the park for 60 minutes after he was sinbinned twice - once in the first half for a high tackle and then again in the second half for retaliating after tempers again flared up between the two sides.
The second spell in the sinbin almost cost his side dearly. While he was on the sideline, he watched as the Wolfhounds, the touring Irish development team, score two tries to come within a whisper of levelling the game.
A drawn match would have been a disappointing result for the 300-strong crowd and, in the end, the attempted conversion by Barry Sheenan slid past the upright for Marist to maintain their slim advantage until the final whistle.
In fairness, Marist were the better team and put in a fierce performance. The Irish forwards were very good but their backs were disappointing and it wasn't until deep into the second spell that they managed to break the Marist defensive line with any regularity.
Marist led 14-6 at the break, after dominating the half with big Peter Fa'alongo and Doug Makiri gaining good yardage carting the ball up. Clever work from dummy half by Te Ariki Walker and Woody Maihi to link with their runners set the platform for the Marist go-forward and Jack Walker was devastating from full-back, picking up two tries in the thrilling win.
Marist 24 (tries, Simon Latu 2, Jack Walker 2, Innocent Tuimavavae; kicks, Herewini Edmonds Woody Maihi), Irish Wolfhounds 22 (tries, Sean Gibbons 2, Willie Garner Rory Farrell; kicks, Les Walsh, Barry Sheenan 2).
