Puketoi make history against East Coast

Puketoi made history when they shook off the rust to produce their first Senior A club rugby victory since 2005 in beating East Coast at Whareama for the first time on Saturday.
With the rain bucketing down throughout the region, the visitors utilised their forward pack to good effect and were rewarded with two mauled tries to blindside Evan Small and tight-head prop Simon Ritchie while Jason Liverton added a conversion and two penalties.
Gritty halfback Kingi Winiata was named player of the match.
"We're pretty rapt," Puketoi player/coach Tahi Hiroki said.
"We played to the game plan and to what we've been training and used the tight five to take it up so it was pretty satisfying.
"It was definitely a confidence booster and we needed it after two tough games.
"It was a good bus trip home, there were a few songs and few drinks and the boys had a good time."
The win lifted them off the bottom of the table, with Carterton and East Coast now the only teams yet to register a victory.
In the Times-Age feature match, the well-drilled Gladstone pack revelled in the atrocious conditions to produce their most dominant display of the season, out muscling Pioneer to secure a 29-5 victory.
With the Pioneer pitch deteriorating into a mud bath and the ball resembling a bar of soap, the visitors proved tactically superior in all facets of the game.
It took only three minutes for the opening try to be scored through first-five Matt Easton after he unleashed a withering bomb that resulted in a Gladstone scrum five metres out from the line.
From there, makeshift halfback George Williams fed Easton who miraculously twisted his way in the tackle under the posts.
The following 35 minutes developed into an enthralling arm wrestle, with Pioneer fighting tooth and nail for every territorial inch only for Easton's boot to send them back inside their 22m to start again.
Surprisingly, the home side chose to spread the ball wide rather than kick for territory and were too often guilty of pushing passes far too difficult to reel in under the conditions.
Though to their credit they scored the games best try when the ball was swung back to first-five Richard Carroll who, having started the movement when he darted blindside, surged 40m and handed Williams a no nonsense fend before slipping a pass inside for the fullback to score.
Gladstone then forced their way back from the kick-off and were rewarded with a penalty on the stroke of halftime that Easton duly converted to send his side to the sheds with a 10-5 advantage.
Pioneer came out firing after the break but poor option taking left them ruing their opportunities as they turned possession over at crucial times.
Eventually the Gladstone pack, led splendidly by tight-head Kurt Simmons and captain Steven Wilkinson, began to make inroads and the writing was on the wall when someone somewhere deep inside a lineout drive was mauled over to push the lead out to 17-5.
Two further tries to Russell Tamihana and replacement Andrew McLean secured the bonus point win, with Easton notching a 14-point haul to cap off a fine all-round performance.
"I'm really pleased with the boys, they stuck to the pattern of what we wanted to do and did it well," Gladstone coach Steve Thompson said.
"We had a bit of an advantage up front and we used that at scrum time and played to the conditions pretty well in the end.
"The boys haven't played in weather conditions like that for a while so it was a good effort."
At Memorial Park, Marist kept Carterton winless after three starts in squeaking home 13-10 thanks to a last minute penalty.
In a scrappy, error-riddled affair neither side maintained any fluency and it came down to Paddy Rimene to break the deadlock after his side looked to be cruising at 10-0 up.
Greytown/Tuhirangi kept their unbeaten start to the season intact, downing neighbours Martinborough 18-6. Eketahuna, meanwhile, bullied their way to an impressive 63-8 thrashing of Masterton Red Star.
The home side scored 11 tries in total, with all but one scored by the forwards.