Hora Hora announced their intentions for this year's Southern Districts Premier Club competition by blowing away the previously unbeaten leaders, Old Boys Marist, 43-5.
It was only Hora Hora's third win of the season but coach Mark Wati said they've been building slowly and were close to their potential athome on Saturday, in front of a good-sized, vocal crowd.
"We started off the season with our body position way too high at the breakdown but now the players are getting more used to the contact and that meant our forwards were able to dominate and that gave our backs good front-foot ball to work with," he said.
Despite Old Boys Marist's bigger pack, Hora Hora were able to dominate both the scrums and in the breakdown area and that proved to be decisive for the home side.
They won by seven tries to one, with loosehead prop Reni Kitekeiaho grabbing a double and Alan Nesbitt, Jared Wendt, Brad Day, Doug Te Puni and Vili Tahitua also dotting down. Second five Tahitua and first five-eighth Ume Fosita both justified their recruitment from Auckland this season could be just what Hora Hora need to make the playoffs.
Wati said he was pleased with the way the team had played and with Warren Dunn due back from injury next week, further improvements were likely. He said the weekend's results showed that the competition would continue to tighten up in the weeks to come.
"The teams in this competition aren't too far off each other," he said.
Mid Northern struggled to beat newly promoted Waipu at Caledonian Park but a 10-6 win saw them go past Old Boys Marist into first place in the standings.
Wellsford showed their slow start could be behind them by comfortably beating another frontrunner, Kamo, 36-10. Hikurangi kept the theme of upsets going by beating the Western Sharks 19-16, while Mid Western were too good for Otamatea 34-17 at Maungaturoto.
In the Premier Reserves, Mid Northern beat Waipu 10-6, Old Boys Marist beat Hora Hora 41-22, while Mid Western beat Otamatea 24-12. Frontrunners Western Sharks were too good for Hikurangi 21-11 while Kamo beat Wellsford 18-10.
