Saved by the bonus point

Defending champions Eketahuna are through to the semi-finals of the 2006 Wairarapa-Bush premier division rugby competition, thanks to the bonus point they picked up in their 19-15 loss to Pioneer when preliminary round matches drew to a close on Saturday.
That point, gained for finishing seven or less points in arrears of the winning side, took Eketahuna's tally for the entire season to 42, the same as Marist who gave themselves a late chance of making the top four by upsetting competition leaders Gladstone 12-5 in their match at Gladstone.
That left the decision on which of the two teams would join Gladstone, Carterton and Pioneer in the semis next weekend down to a countback on games won over the first two rounds and Eketahuna had the slimmest of advantages there, having registered nine wins to Marist's eight.
Eketahuna coach Dave Smith was "very relieved" his side had given themselves the opportunity to win their fourth successive premier division title and quick to pay tribute to Pioneer for the manner of victory in the game played at Eketahuna on Saturday.
"They (Pioneer) scored a couple of really nice tries and while we didn't play too badly they deserved what they got," he said.
"We knew the bonus point could be a help although we certainly didn't plan to get to the semis by that route."
Outstanding for Pioneer was young three-quarter Jordan Fox, who scored two of his team's tries, one of them a splendid individual effort. He was part of a backline which was always willing to place the emphasis on attack and which thrived on the reasonable share of quality possession won by their forwards.
Joe Papalii also scored a try for Pioneer and Richard Carroll kicked two conversions
Eketahuna's try scorers were two of their better performers in Steve Olds and Brendan Walker while Simanu Simanu kicked a penalty and a conversion.
Neither team troubled the scorers in the first half of the Marist v Gladstone match at Gladstone but it was Marist who had the better finish to their attacking play in the second.
Tries to Phil Aporo and Lawrence Matthews and a conversion to Paddy Rimene gave them a 12-5 win over Gladstone, whose only points came from a try to Ross Batty. Both teams struggled to get any real fluency into their play because of the heavy ground conditions but at the same time there was enough movement to keep spectators entertained.
The hard running Aporo was again the danger man in the Marist backline while hooker Batty had a strong all-round game in the Gladstone pack.
Carterton guaranteed themselves home advantage in the semi-finals by beating Greytown-Tuhirangi 30-10 in their premier division match played at Carterton.
The result was as good as sealed by halftime, at which stage Carterton led 25-0, and while the combined side made a much better contest of it in the second spell they only managed to make slight inroads into their advantage.
Not helping the Carterton cause in the second spell was that at one stage they were down to 13 men through having two forwards, Adam Marshalll and Tomasi Kedrabuka, in the sin bin.
And they were also on the end of hefty penalty count in that half, being found by referee John Kendal to infringe on 14 occasions compared to Greytown-Tuhirangi's two.
Hooker Marshall had a busy game for Carterton which also benefitted from some solid work on both attack and defence from midfielders Lance Stevenson and James Matthews.
Greytown-Tuhirangi had Wairarapa-Bush reps Sylvanus Iro and Brett Rudman on the bench in the first half and they both made a positive impact in the second half with usual loose forward Iro demonstrating his versatility by playing in the backs.
Bert Buckle, Langi Peters and Lance Stevenson (2) scored the tries for Carterton and Jono Hurley kicked two penalties and two conversions. Terry and Iro scored tries for Greytown-Tuhirangi.
Competition points at the end of the preliminary rounds were: Gladstone 48, Carterton 47 Pioneer 46, Eketahuna 42, Marist 42, Greytown-Tuhirangi 31.
The semis will see Gladstone play Eketahuna at Gladstone and Carterton at home to Pioneer with the two winnrs there going through to the grand final on July 29.