Red Star repulse brave Martinborough

Gary Caffell
Masterton Red Star repulsed a brave Martinborough challenge 13-6 in their Wairarapa-Bush premier division rugby match played in arctic-like conditions at Memorial Park, Masterton on Saturday.
Strange as it may seem both teams produced their best rugby when they had the elements against them; Masterton Red Star in the first half and Martinborough in the second.
Masterton Red Star must have gone into the halftime break anticipating a comfortable victory.
After all they had battled for 40 minutes into the teeth of the driving wind and rain and were trailing by just 3-0 on the scoreboard, Martinborough first-five Quentin Larkin having kicked a close range penalty goal early in the game.
It was their forwards who had done most of the hard yards for Masterton Red Star with skipper Jake Bubb leading the way from No 8 and others like impressive front rowers Tim Hintz and Owen Riddell right on his shoulder.
Not only had they had the edge over the Martinborough eight in the set pieces but they were consistently arriving at the breakdowns in greater numbers and therefore dominating the battle for second phase possession.
Helping the Masterton Red Star cause too was the difficulty had by the Martinborough backs when looking to kick for territory. Several times the ball bounced into touch in-goal, meaning a scrum from where the kick had originally been made.
Whatever Martinborough coach Trevor Hawkins said to his forwards during the interval obviously worked the oracle because their second half effort was several notches above their first.
Hooker Adam Marshall was outstanding with his barnstorming runs in broken play and with Jared Hawkins being typically industrious in the loose they had a clear edge on their Masterton Red Star counterparts in most departments, none more so than in the scrums where they continually had Masterton Red Star on the back pedal.
To Masterton Red Star's credit, however, they did manage to turn their limited scoring chances into points on the board.
First-five Byron Karaitiana landed a wobbly old dropped goal before winger Tua Tuffa chased hard after a kick through and scored the game's only try.
Karaitiana landed splendid conversion from wide out and then kicked a penalty to give his side a 13-3 advantage.
Martinborough closed the gap to bonus point proportions after Quentin Larkin had missed a penalty attempt from almost in front but was allowed a second attempt by referee Goff Moorcock because of some misdemeanour by a Masterton Red Star player.
Larkin was successful this time and Masterton Red Star's lead was reduced to 13-6.
The final stanzas of the match were all Martinborough with the forwards led by willing workhorse Marshall throwing everything they had at the Masterton Red Star defence but failing to crack it open.
All other premier division games on Saturday were also hugely affected by the winter blast with minor upsets coming in the form of Greytown's 18-8 win over Carterton and Eketahuna edging out Gladstone 15-11.
Greytown scored three tries in their fixture with Carterton, two of them to Tommy Sargent and the other to H.Meyrick.
Senoa Isaac also kicked a penalty goal. Brock Price scored Carterton's only try and Neil Rodger landed a penalty.
An interesting newcomer to the Eketahuna squad in Reupeni Tamani brother of former Wairarapa-Bush winger Jorgi Tamani scored one of their two tries against Gladstone with big prop Brendan Walker crashing over as well.
Graeme Cremen added one conversion and one penalty.
Bevan Morland scored Gladstone's try and Jason Kjestrup kicked three penalty goals.
Pioneer mastered the elements better than Marist in their encounter at the Park Sportsground and ran out comfortable 25-0 winners.
Ihe Namana, A Kuru-Henare and Nathan Rolls scored tries for Pioneer with Rolls also kicking one penalty and one conversion.
East Coast maintained their place with Masterton Red Star at the top of the competition table with a hard-fought 21-6 victory over a gutsy Puketoi side.
Joe Feast and T.Henare scored the East Coast tries, Sam Mitchell dropped a goal and Nick Olson kicked two penalties and one conversion.
Jason Liverton kicked two penalties for Puketoi.
The Eketahuna women's rugby side were beaten 12-5 by Marist St Pats in their Wellington premier division match played in Wellington on Saturday.
The icy weather meant it was always going to be a forward struggle and Marist St Pats had the edge there.
First-five Jessie Bennett and loose forward Emma Aldworth were standouts for Eketahuna, whose only try was scored by Shakira Baker.