Black Fern Shakira Baker played a huge hand in Eketahuna's narrow 17-15 win over Old Boys University in their Wellington premier division women's rugby match played at Eketahuna on Saturday.
Baker scored all three Eketahuna tries - one of which was converted by fellow Black Fern Rebecca Mahoney - andoften used her speed and strength to telling effect.
Even allowing for Baker's dominance in midfield though, Old Boys proved a tough nut to crack, contesting strongly for possession up front and showing determination in the backs.
Apart from Baker, the standout players for Eketahuna were loose forwards Perri Tatana-Williams and Hera Edwards and lock Raylene Reiri. Tatana-Williams and Edwards covered huge territory on attack and defence while Reiri took some useful lineout ball and was her usual mobile self around the paddock, as well.
Eketahuna coach Selwyn Haeata was pleased with the resolve shown by his side but said they had all too often made it hard for themselves by losing possession, either through individualism or lack of support.
"We gave away a lot of ball and that's something we certainly have to improve on," he said.
Meanwhile, Ruamahanga paid the price for a slow start when they were on the end of a 60-5 beating by Linton IPC in their Manawatu colts competition match.
Ruamahanga did compete well in the second half and might have scored at least three more tries than the one they managed but for handling errors.
However, it was all too late as they trailed 43-0 at the break and were then basically playing for pride.
"It was a good lesson of the importance of starting strongly, hopefully we will learn from it in the weeks ahead," Ruamahanga manager Richard Dahlberg said.
