SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.
A try right on fulltime sealed a 25-15 win for Poverty Bay over Wairarapa-Bush in their non-championship rugby match played in Gisborne on Saturday.
The defeat means Wairarapa-Bush will go into their opening Heartland championship match against West Coast in Masterton next weekend without a win on the board in
their lead-up games but this was a match in which the final margin did flatter the victors.
For the first 20 minutes, in fact, it was Wairarapa-Bush who mostly called the tune with their set piece of play of lineout and scrum looking more solid than that of the home side.
The problem for Wairarapa-Bush though was they were unable to turn at least a couple of prime try scoring chances into points on the board and this was to be their biggest bugbear throughout the whole game, something evidenced by the fact that all 15 of their points came from the boot of first-five John Dodd.
Also concerning to Wairarapa-Bush would be the lack of surety on defence of their midfield backs and the failure of their forwards to get to the breakdowns in numbers. New openside flanker Josh Mackey worked diligently in that regard but too often lacked support.
Heartening for Wairarapa-Bush, however, would have been the unity of their scrum led by hard-working hooker Joe Harwood. They had Poverty Bay on the back pedal there on several occasions.
Their lineout play too was impressive with the main "go to" man there being lock Dan Griffin, who not only took down most of his own team's ball but also managed to snare some ball from opposition throws as well.
First-five Dodd took a knock early in the game at first-five and the fact he soldiered on and played soundly spoke volumes for his courage. His goal kicking was a real bonus for his side.
The other Wairarapa-Bush back to stand out was fullback Simanu Simanu who was positionally sound and who generally made good ground when joining in the line in attacking situations.
