Winger Guy Wood was the toast of Gladstone after they scored an upset 27-22 win over Pioneer in their Wairarapa-Bush Tui Cup premier division rugby match at Gladstone on Saturday.
Wood, an Englishman who joined up with Gladstone at the beginning of this season, scored all his team's points with two tries, one conversion and five penalty goals. And in addition to that, he made a big impact in general play.
He made several stirring runs down his flank, often leaving would-be defenders in his wake through a mix of clever footwork and rapid acceleration, and was also top value on cover defence.
This was an important victory for Gladstone as it kept them well in the hunt to retain the Tui Cup they won last year, while for Pioneer it ended a long unbeaten sequence, which included them taking out the Kapene Cup as first round winners.
Even if both sides struggled at times through basic handling and passing errors and poor option-taking, the match provided an entertaining spectacle, as evidenced by the back and forth nature of the scoreline.
Up 12-8 at halftime Gladstone then faltered before a Pioneer onslaught which saw them edge ahead 22-15 but the home team was not done with. A Wood try which he converted from the sideline levelling things up at 22-22 and then the same player scoring a second try in the closing stages to steal the game 27-22.
Another standout for Gladstone was lock Andrew McLean. He seemed to be all over the paddock, making good metreage with his charging runs, sparring keenly for maul ball and tackling as if his life depended on it.
Another Gladstone forward to shine was No 8 Jim Temoci who ran powerfully off the back of the scrum. Also exceptional was the workrate of flanker Sean Loader.
The solidness of Charlie Bargh at halfback was another plus for Gladstone as was the nippiness of Inia Katia on the wing.
Pioneer were beaten but far from disgraced.They did not display quite the same unity about their play as they had in most of their previous games, with at least a couple of tries going begging through players not making the final pass, but they did enough to suggest they remain a very serious contender for the Tui Cup title.
In No 8 Lee Ewe, Pioneer had a forward who invariably shrugged off two or three tacklers whenever he had the chance to stretch his legs and front rowers Ihe Namana and Matt Kawana were diligent workers in the tighter exchanges. Halfback Greg Paku provided his outsides with a snappy service. The pick of them were centre Tommy Harmon and fullback Hoani Peacock.
In other Tui Cup matches, Martinborough assumed the competition lead with their 30-17 win over East Coast, Greytown made it two from two with a 16-8 victory over Eketahuna and Bush Sports and Carterton fought out a 13-13 draw.