Marist squeak past Greytown

Nobody could question Marist's resolve in their narrow 16-15 win over Greytown in the Wairarapa-Bush premier division rugby match played in persistent rain at Memorial Park, Masterton, on Saturday.
Down to 14 men when they had loosie Corey Miller sent off by referee Andrew Payne allegedly for throwing a punch early on the second spell and then reduced to 13 for 10 minutes not long afterwards when No8 Ben Couch was sin-binned, Marist still managed to achieve an edge on two important counts, territory and possession.
It was, in fact, when they were two players down that James Goodger kicked the penalty which moved Marist into a 16-15 lead after they had frittered a 13-9 halftime advantage to be trailing 15-13 and staring defeat in the face.
There was still some excitement to come, however, with Greytown spending the last few minutes of the game on hot attack and earning themselves a penalty right on fulltime. It was within kickable reach for Rhys Lett but his attempt fell short and Marist were home.
It was the closeness of the scores more than the standard of rugby which kept the small crowd enthralled. Both teams struggled to get continuity into their attacking play through poor handling and passing skills and the ball was too often kicked simply for the sake of it rather than for any perceived purpose.
Goodger, Couch and hooker Leuma Wilson were the standouts in a Marist pack which stuck to their guns well even when down to six men.
Goodger was the best lineout forward on the paddock and again impressed with his mobility about the paddock, getting through a mountain of work on both attack and defence.Throw in the accuracy of his goal kicking and his was clearly a player of the match performance.
Couch was the main go to man for Marist in the many short passing rushes they launched throughout the course of the 80 minutes and very seldom was he grounded by the first tackle.
Wilson excelled in broken play situations which allowed him to utilise his running skills and he also used his strength to good effect in the mauls.
In the Marist backline there were useful individual efforts from Murray Gleeson, Daniel Blong and Laurence Titter but, overall, too many simple gaffes were made for the backs as a whole to feel satisfied with their input to the victory.
Greytown went into the game as underdogs and would have come away encouraged by the fact they made such a close game of it, and might even have pulled off a last-minute win. They did finish with the bragging rights in the try-scoring department, with two to one in that area.
As was the case with Marist though the Greytown backs struggled to get any rhythm and fluency into their play through a combination of basic errors and indecisive option taking but there was some enthusiastic play up front where the likes of PJ Freeman, Gareth Van Dalen, Nick Day and Kurt Simmonds were often prominent.
Goodger landed three penalties and a conversion for Marist and Daniel Blong scored their try. PJ Freeman and Tavita Isaac were listed as the try scorers for Greytown with Lett kicking one penalty and one conversion.
East Coast became the only team that are yet to taste defeat in premier division play when they beat the hitherto undefeated Eketahuna 22-7. Byron Karaitiana had a big say on the points list for the Coasters with a dropped goal, two penalties and a conversion while Dan Porter kicked two penalties and Jesse McGilvary scored a try. Eketahuna posted a try through Luke Mahoney and it was converted by Joe Hull.
Pioneer and Gladstone had the expected close tussle, with Pioneer keeping their Kapene Cup hopes alive with a 13-8 win. Tommy Harmon scored their try and Tipi Haira kicked one conversion and two penalties. Front rower Bevan Morland touched down for Gladstone and Michael Vuicakau kicked a penalty.
Martinborough and Masterton Red Star also had a battle royal with Martinborough, which scored the only two tries of the game, getting home 18-15. Te Kani and Jared Hawkins were their try scorers and Greg Dennes kicked one conversion and two penalties. Jamie Fraser landed five penalties for Masterton Red Star,
Puketoi defaulted to Featherston through a shortage of players and are holding a special meeting tomorrow night to decide whether they have the numbers to continue in premier division play.