Ref and poor finishing decide final

An appallingly bad refereeing decision and poor finishing on their own account played a major role in Wairarapa-Bush's 14-37 loss to Poverty Bay in the NPC third division rugby final played in Gisborne on Saturday.
How referee Jonathan White, and for that matter his two line umpires, missed the big knock on which occurred just before Poverty Bay scored their first try is impossible to fathom.
Television relays showed the ball going what appeared to be metres forward before it was regathered by Poverty Bay and fullback Semosoni Pone scored close to the posts after shrugging off a weak tackle by Wairarapa-Bush fullback Richard Carroll.
The conversion by Scott Leighton gave Poverty Bay a 7-3 lead and came as a huge blow to Wairarapa-Bush who had only a Patrick Rimene penalty to show for the decided advantage they had achieved through the first 15 minutes in both territory and position.
Mind you, Wairarapa-Bush should have scored at least one try themselves in that period. On one of the few occasions during the course of the game where their backs actually managed to open up the Poverty Bay defence a pass was dropped with the line less than 10 metres away.
And to make matters worse for the visitors they suffered the same fate not long afterwards when ball was again spilled with the goalline beckoning.
It would, of course, had been an entirely different ball game had Wairarapa-Bush converted those two try scoring opportunities into points on the board and had Poverty Bay been pulled back for the knock-on before their controversial try.
Even allowing for the attacking skills of the Poverty Bay outside backs, which become more and more obvious as the game wore on, a lead of 13 to 17 points to Wairarapa-Bush would have been unsettling, to say the least, for the home side.
As it happened, it was Poverty Bay who kept the scoreboard ticking over.
The Pone try was followed by a second to wing Daniel Moeke after an impressive counter attack although again the defensive work of Wairarapa-Bush was hardly up to scratch.
Two penalties to Leighton and two more to Rimene made up the first half scoring with Poverty Bay going to the break 18-9 ahead and having the happy prospect of playing with the elements in their favour in the second spell
It was Leighton who set up the third Poverty Bay try soon after the resumption. After faking to kick he sparked a counter attack and with devastating centre Wade Owen making the initial thrust, Pone was able to cruise over for the try.
To give Wairarapa-Bush credit they never looked like flying the white flag, but inevitably any attacks they launched were either spoiled by laboured passing or by referee White penalising them for some indiscretion.
And with Leighton continuing to bang over the goals, Poverty Bay were home and hosed at 37-9 when Wairarapa-Bush finally got their consolation try, skipper Mike Robinson crashing over just five minutes from the game's end.
It was appropriate that it should be No.8 Robinson who produced the final act for Wairarapa-Bush for he was clearly their player of the game.
He was a menacing runner in broken play and a sure defender around the fringes of the rucks and mauls.
Flanker Brian Saolele worked tirelessly in the looser areas of the forward game and it was unfortunate that his assertiveness on defence wasn't copied by many of his teammates.
Lock Stu Smith gave his usual honest performance and the same could be said of prop Dylan Higginson who spent time off the field as a broken nose was repaired.
The Wairarapa-Bush backs have had better days. Slow passing and a lack of variety tended to hamper their attacking play and they were no more than average, and often shoddy, in their defensive work.
Second-five Nathan Couch was the pick of the backs despite breaking a finger early in the game. He was always prepared to run the ball back at the opposition and it generally took a couple of defenders to halt his progress.
Wing Esava Teko did manage to make space for himself on a couple of occasions through nifty footwork but had precious few chances to really stretch his legs.
To win the third division title spoke volumes for the character of the Poverty Bay side were on the end of 100-plus point beatings twice earlier in the season, once at the hands of Auckland in a Ranfurly Shield challenge, and the other to Hawke's Bay in their annual Queen's Birthday weekend clash.
Without wanting to belittle them though one wonders whether they will have the depth of talent to keep them away from the relegation zone in the second division series in 2005.
No doubt they will be on the look out for quality "imports", something, dare I say it, which Wairarapa-Bush might also need to do if their dreams of a third division title are to become a reality.