Eketahuna came within a solitary point of upsetting hot favourites Feilding Old Boys in their Prue Christie Cup women's rugby match at Eketahuna on Saturday.
With both teams going into the game having won their previous four matches it was a virtual final and the star-studded Feilding Old Boysside, which included several national sevens and secondary school representatives, was expected to have too many guns for an Eketahuna side somewhat depleted by injuries.
But while FOB did eventually claim the honours 11-10 it was a close go with Eketahuna deservedly holding a 10-6 lead at halftime and only a late FOB try stopping them from causing what would have been a major upset.
The game was something of a stop-start affair with Eketahuna on the wrong end of a hefty penalty count. They also had two of their most experienced forwards - Raylene Reiri and Perri Tatana-Williams - spend time in the sin bin, with the winning FOB try was scored while they had 14 players on the paddock.
Apart from these misdemeanours both Reiri and Tatana-Williams had strong games for Eketahuna, Reiri being a dominant figure in the lineouts and running powerfully in broken play and Tatana-Williams scrapping hard for loose ball and having a huge tackle rate.
Another Eketahuna forward to shine was Katie Turnbull, who was prominent on both attack and defence, and much the same could be said of Hera Edwards.
Eketahuna's backs lost nothing in comparison with their highly-regarded opposites. Fullback Huia Paul was an elusive runner on the counter attack and stoic on defence, midfielder Lisa-Marie Ireland used her pace and strength to score a fine try and was seldom halted by the first tackle and the inside combination of Laura Gavin and Rebecca Mahoney functioned effectively.
Also welcomed back to the Eketahuna fold was Black Ferns representative Shakira Baker, who was having her first game for some months. She made a couple of storming runs but had few opportunities to display her attacking skills.
Narrow as their win was, credit must also be given to FOB, who went through the 2013 club season undefeated, having earlier won the first round competition by a wide margin.
They were obviously keen to play the game at pace but, like Eketahuna, were stifled by penalties being handed out on a monotonously regular basis.
Ireland scored a try for Eketahuna and Mahoney kicked one penalty and one conversion.
