Rugby
It wasn't pretty but Eketahuna got the result they wanted when they beat East Coast 9-7 in their Tui Cup premier division rugby match at Eketahuna on Saturday.
The three penalty goals legitimately landed by first-five Tom Meuli were enough to earn Eketahuna a home semifinal against Pioneer next weekend, and also enough to satisfy most in a huge crowd who turned up to help celebrate the club's old-timers' day.
Meuli was successful with four penalty attempts during the course of the game but had one ruled out by referee Andrew Springer for a player being in front of the kicker.
That came with East Coast clinging to a slender 7-6 lead and would have undoubtedly been the talk of the town, had not East Coast offended again and Meuli not been given another chance to get the nose in front. Eketahuna were always likely to revolve their game plan around keeping the ball close to the forwards, while East Coast, who will now travel to Greytown for the other semifinal, needed to win and score four tries in the process to enhance their seeding.
That Eketahuna have a pack capable of measuring up to any in the premier division series was further underlined here. With Johan Van Vliet and Joss Tua-Davidson leading the way in the loose and the likes of Brendan Walker and Daniel Griffin using all their experience to telling effect in the tight, they gained a slight ascendancy up front against an East Coast eight which also showed plenty of grit and determination.
Former Eketahuna player Wiremu Grace was a standout for them, along with Robert O'Neale, while Tom Bowie added extra sting when he came off the reserves bench in the second half.
It was Meuli who was the trump card in the Eketahuna backline, and not only for the accuracy of his goalkicking. He was also adept at clearing his line under pressure and reliable on the tackle.
The East Coast backs did everything they could do to influence the result through their attacking capabilities but they found a tenacious Eketahuna defence hard to crack.
Two other Tui Cup matches were played on Saturday. Marist and Bush Sports scored three tries apiece in their game won by Marist 25-22. Kieran O'Brien, Abel Ripene and Fiti Tauese scored the Marist tries, and James Goodger kicked two conversions and two penalties. All three Bush Sports tries went to Jake Tipene and Jordan Bennett-Davies kicked two conversions and one penalty.
Gladstone utility back Cameron Hayton brought up his 200 points for the club season when he scored a hat-trick of tries and also kicked one conversion and one penalty in his team's 28-18 win over Carterton. Inia Katia also featured on the scoresheet for Gladstone with a try and dropped goal. Paul Tiko (2) and Luke Jones were the Carterton try scorers and Dan Pickering kicked a penalty.
In senior reserve matches, Eketahuna edged out East Coast 27-24 and Carterton beat Bush Sports 27-17, while the Eketahuna women added to a memorable day for their club by scoring an impressive 29-12 win over Stratford in their Manawatu competition game, a more detailed report of which is on page 26.