Confusion reigns as two teams qualify for Kapene Cup honour

Gary Caffell
Confusion reigns over who has won the Chris Kapene Memorial Cup for being the leading team at the end of one complete round of matches in the Wairarapa-Bush premier division rugby competition.
East Coast's shock 25-19 loss to Martinborough at Whareama on Saturday saw them pick up just the one bonus point and finish their first round campaign on 35 competition points, exactly the same as Masterton Red Star who joined them at the top of the table through a five-try 37-9 win over Puketoi at Pongaroa.
Remarkably, the rules for premier division play which were amended for this season, do not seem to cover such a situation.
Apparently there is no actual provision for a countback system to decide the Kapene Cup winner and so WBRFU officials planned to meet this morning to discuss the various scenarios at their disposal.
It appears three options are available to them. They could go by the result of clash between the two sides earlier in the season, which would favour Masterton Red Star, a points for and points against differential which would favour East Coast or they could simply declare them joint winners.
Martinborough coach Trevor Hawkins was justifiably delighted with his side's defeat of East Coast, a result which was based around achieving enough domination up front to lessen the influence of the pacy East Coast backs.
"We had a game plan and we stuck to it, everybody did what they had to do," Hawkins said
Hooker Adam Marshall, prop Daniel George, lock Matt O'Neale and loosies Jared Hawkins and Scott Gudsell all had standout games for Martinborough up front and in a backline badly depleted by injuries there were solid performances from first-five Quentin Larkin and second-five Owen Coulson.
Saturday's win rocketed Martinborough to fourth on the competition table but with two more backs going down with injuries Hawkins was left contemplating how he was going to fill the void in the weeks ahead. "Just getting seven backs out there is a huge problem right now," he conceded.
Kirwan Namana, Quentin Larkin and Thomas Te Kani scored tries for Martinborough and Larkin added two conversions and two penalties. Nick Olson, D. Paku and Luke Shanks scored tries for East Coast and Olson kicked two conversions.
Masterton Red Star's 37-9 win over Puketoi did not come easily with Puketoi giving them the expected torrid battle up front and trailing by just 11-9 at halftime.
But for Masterton Red Star coach Corie Karaitiana it was the pack who still deserved the most kudos for the victory as no fewer than six of the regular forwards were missing and it was pretty much a baptism of fire for their replacements. Flanker Jordan Sutherland and front rowers Tim Hintz and Justin Karaitiana all had big games while Byron Karaitiana was typically sound in the backs.
Dave Miller, Tua Taffa, Chris Osborne (2) and Heemi Tupaea scored tries for Masterton Red Star and Byron Karaitiana kicked three conversions and two penalties. All Puketoi's points came from penalty goals.
Gladstone were average. Marist were awful. That would be a fair summation of the merits of the two teams in the premier division match played at Memorial Park on Saturday.
Their 41-10 winning margin might suggest this was something of a vintage Gladstone performance but it was a long way from that.
Yes, they had a clear edge over Marist in the battle for possession up front and, yes, their backs did manage to run in a couple of well-executed tries but there were too many basic handling and passing errors and too many missed tackles for them to get overly excited about the end result.
Marist, for their part, were their own worst enemies. Right from the outset they were intent on playing high-risk rugby through constantly looking to run the ball out of high pressure defensive situations and the consequences were invariably suicidal.
That they were without some of their key players, and fielded others in unaccustomed positions, obviously didn't help their cause but a more conservative approach would almost certainly have seen them make a closer game of it.
Skipper Tim Fleming, Kurt Simmonds and Andrew McLean were a trio of hard working forwards for Gladstone with Fleming, in particular, taking the eye. He was a steady supplier of lineout ball, a determined runner in broken play and a solid defender around the fringes of the mauls.
Busy halfback Charlie Bargh was the pick of the Gladstone backs while Russell Tamihana was his usual steady self in midfield and Andrew McKay showed good pace on the wing.
Flanker Geordie Waldon was quick to the breakdowns and had a high tackle rate for Marist, Anthony Balks did a useful job at No 8 and usual loose forward Joe Nuku made a positive impact when he came off the reserves bench to join the backline in midfield.
Andrew McKay, Baden Stevenson (2) and Tim Fleming scored tries for Gladstone and Jason Kjestrup kicked two conversions and six penalties. Peter Pauli and Joe Nuku scored tries for Marist.
Carterton sit third on the competition table after bouncing back to winning form with a 22-5 success over Eketahuna. Tomasi Kedrabuka, L. Volavola, Mike Wakefield and Brock Price scored tries for Carterton and Neil Rodger kicked one conversion. L. Mahon scored a try for Eketahuna.
Points were hard to come by in the match between Pioneer and Greytown at Greytown with Pioneer winning 5-3, thanks to a first-half try against Greytown's lone penalty. Loose forwards Nathan and Isaac Rolls starred for Pioneer while young Hayden Keeling had a strong game on the flank for Greytown.