Rugby
Rugby matches are often won by the team which makes the most of their opponent's mistakes.
So it was with Greytown in their 34-0 demolition of East Coast in their Wairarapa-Bush Tui Cup premier division rugby match played at Whareama on Saturday.
A scoreline of those proportions would suggest it was basically one-way traffic in terms of territory and possession with Greytown calling all the shots but, in reality, that was far from the case.
Yes, the southerners did finish with an advantage in both those aspects of the game but it was nothing like the magnitude which the end result might indicate.
The big difference between the two sides was Greytown's uncanny ability to turn spilled ball or poor option-taking on East Coast's part into points on the board.
The Greytown backs, especially, were quick to pounce whenever the opportunity presented itself and invariably it was their robust midfielders, Tapaga Isaac and Teihana Brown, who provided the initial spark; Isaac with the hard, straight running which has become a trademark of his game and Brown with a turn of foot which often had would-be tacklers grasping at thin air. And whenever they broke the first line of defence other backs like wing Tavita Isaac and fullback Glen Walters were quick to add further sting to their attacks.
The East Coast rearguard, on the other hand, displayed little of the flair which has been a feature of their play in recent seasons. Apart from making too many simple handling and passing errors, they never looked settled against the "in your face" defensive structure from their Greytown counterparts.
Up front it was a much more even battle with the two packs going hammer and tongs at each other for much of the 80 minutes without either gaining any real measure of superiority.
Two of the more seasoned campaigners in Joe Feast for East Coast and Norm Henricksen for Greytown were reliable winners of lineout ball and hard grafters in other areas of the forward game and you couldn't fault the work-rate of loosies Ben Holmes (East Coast) and Tana Isaac (Greytown), either.
Teihana Brown (2), Tavita Isaac and Reece Lett scored tries for Greytown and Walters kicked four conversions and two penalty goals.
Gladstone and Bush Sports had a see-sawing match with Gladstone eventually running out winners 34-22. Bush Sports had the better of the forward exchanges where their unity in the mauls often had Gladstone back-pedalling, and led directly to one of their tries. Gladstone, though, had the sharper of the two backlines with usual suspects, Inia Katia and Cameron Hayton, leading the way there. John Stevenson, Inia Katia, Cameron Hayton (2) and Andrew McKay scored tries for Gladstone and Hayton kicked three conversions and a penalty. Jacob Tipene came up with a hat-trick of tries for Bush Sports and Jordan Bennett-Davies kicked two conversions and a penalty.
Seventy-one points were scored when Pioneer and Martinborough met at Martinborough and it was the in-form Pioneer who took the honours 42-29. Damian Kako-Paku scored two of the Pioneer tries with others going to Hinioma Haira, Lee Ewe, Nathan Rolls and Ake Henare-Kuru. Joseph Thompson added three conversions and two penalties. Greyson Goodger, Phillip Aporo, Quinton Larkin and Thomas Te Kani scored tries for Martinborough and Tipene Haira kicked three conversions and a penalty.
Carterton maintained their momentum with a 29-14 win over Marist although a gritty Marist kept them honest in most departments. Try-scorers for Carterton were Johnie McFadzean, Carlos Rimene, Paul Tiko and Lance Stevenson and Danny Drown kicked three conversions and a penalty. Ben Couch and P Tufa scored tries for Marist and James Goodger kicked two conversions.
Pioneer leads the points table on 26, followed by Greytown 21, Eketahuna 20, East Coast 19, Gladstone and Carterton 11, Martinborough 6, Bush Sports 5 and Marist one. Still to have the bye are Pioneer, East Coast and Carterton.
In senior reserve games, East Coast beat Bush Sports 50-19, Greytown beat Marist 67-10 and Martinborough beat Pioneer 29-8.