Who would have thought at halftime that Eketahuna had any chance of beating Pioneer in the grand final of the Hodder Steffert Cup premier division rugby plate grand final at Memorial Park on Saturday?
Trailing 31-12 at the break Eketahuna were on the ropes and practically down for the count but
a stunning second 40 minutes saw them fight back to snatch a 36-34 win, their last of six tries being scored by Rupeni Tamani with just two minutes of play remaining.
It levelled the scores at 34-34 and Joe Hull's conversion was enough to give Eketahuna a memorable victory.
To say this was very much of a match of two halves would be no exaggeration.
Pioneer, with the elements in their favour, applied most of the pressure in the first half with forwards and backs often linking in movements sweeping 50 metres or more.
Prominent for them up front were Aki Henare-Kuru and Nathan Rolls while Tipene Haira, Hoani Peacock and pacy winger Charlie Brown were top value in the backs.
The second spell was an entirely different story.
Eketahuna's forwards noticeably lifted their workrate and with loosies Rupeni Tamani, Johan Van Vliet and Joss Tua-Davidson showing the way they starved Pioneer of possession while regularly creating try-scoring chances of their own.
It was not surprising then that it was their forwards who provided the five-pointers for Eketahuna. Van Vliet touched down twice and Brendan Walker, Campbell Lawrence, Luke Neoti and Tamani also did the business in that regard. Hull kicked three conversions.
Brown (2), Rolls, and Haira scored the tries for Pioneer and Haira kicked four conversions, one dropped goal and one penalty.
Pioneer didn't, however, come out of finals day with one trophy to show for their efforts. They made a one-horse race of the Ryan Cup senior reserves championship grand final, beating Masterton Red Star by 39-0.
