Gladstone home in exciting clash

Eight tries were scored in a thoroughly entertaining spectacle as Gladstone staved off a brave Pioneer challenge 31-24 in their Wairarapa-Bush senior first division rugby match played at the Park Sportsground in Masterton on Saturday.
Unbeaten Gladstone went into the game as piping hot favourites but a major upset looked on the cards when Pioneer had their noses in front well into the last quarter.
Pressure of that kind does, of course, tend to bring out the best in good sides and Gladstone responded with two tries to take a 12-point advantage but, appropriately, Pioneer ensured themselves two bonus points by having the last say on the scoreboard, dotting down for their fourth try almost on fulltime and reducing Gladstone's winning margin to seven.
Pre-match predictions that the bigger and more experienced Gladstone pack would dominate the forward exchanges were quickly put to rest by a Pioneer eight which competed strongly in every department.
The scrummaging effort of both teams was solid with Gladstone front rowers Richard Puddy and Kurt Simmonds actually being two of their team's standout performers.
They were equally prominent in the rucks and mauls and were hard to stop with ball in hand.
In the lineouts Pioneer benefitted immensely from the well-timed leaping of Nathan Rolls, who was also back to his best form in broken play, often troubling the Gladstone defence with his strong and elusive running. Gladstone had a number of useful options in their lineout play with Steve Wilkinson, especially,taking down a number of clean takes.
The loose forward battle was always likely to be a match highlight with both sides having strength in depth in that area. Promising youngsters Lee Ewe and Mike Wilson were grand value for Pioneer with Ewe making a number of rampaging runs and Wilson invariably in close support.
Gladstone for their part profited hugely from the experience of No.8 Mike Spence who was never far from the action. He was always willing to run the ball back at the opposition and usually made good metreage while doing so.
The loss of wily halfback James Bruce with an ankle injury early in the game was a blow to Gladstone but it was softened to a large degree by the energetic display of his replacement Shaun Bicknell. First-five Dean Grant wasn't quite his usual accurate self with his goal kicking but again appealed as a promising talent in general play and JordanWatene shirked nothing on attack or defence in midfield.
The Pioneer backs were never afraid to chance their arm and provided some of the game's best moments through their attacking flair.
First-five Hoani Peacock always looked to have time on his hands and mostly found open spaces with his tactical kicking and in midfielders Jamie Smallman and Joe Papaali, Pioneer had two players who ran strongly on attack and tackled just as strongly on defence.
Greytown picked up their first win of the season when they defeated Eketahuna 13-3 in a hard-fought match which ended with just the one try being scored. Johnny Avatea was moved from the midfield backs to the No.8 position for Greytown and had a big game there while Norm Henricksen was a tower of strength at lock. Also serving Greytown well was the inside back combination of Mike Hollis and Richard Tosswill.
The standout player for Eketahuna was lock Dan Griffin.
Marist coach Sid Tatana paid tribute to the excellence of Martinborough in the set pieces after their match won by Marist 22-13. Tatana was especially impressed by the Martinborough scrummaging.
"They pushed us around a bit there," he said, adding that Marist had not helped their own cause by "blowing" at least three tries through poor passing."It wasn't one of our best efforts, we made it hard on ourselves"
Lock James Goodger impressed with both his lineout and general play for Marist and winger Jareth Fox made the most of his chances in scoring two tries.
East Coast continued their march up the Moose Kapene Cup competition table with a 22-8 win over Puketoi. The forward battle was an even one with neither side dominating there but the edge East Coast had in attacking flair in the backs proved the decisive factor. They finished with three tries to Puketoi's one.
Short scoreboards:-
Gladstone 31 (S.Bicknell, D.Grant, D.Drummond and A.Crisp tries, Grant one penalty and four conversions), Pioneer 24 (L.Ewe, T.Rimene, P.Brown and C.Brown tries, H.Peacock two conversions); Greytown 13 (B.Aitken try, R.Tosswill two penalties, T.Te Kani one conversion), Eketahuna 3 (S.Olds penalty); East Coast 22 (T. Mason 2, and A.Gaskin tries, N.Olson two conversions and one penalty), Puketoi 8 (J.Bambry try, J.Hull penalty); Marist 22 (J.Fox 2 , B.Karaitiana and T.Mahuri tries, Mahuri two conversions and one penalty), Martinborough 13 (J.Matthews and K.Namana tries, Ke.Te Whare penalty).