Wairarapa favourites to fore

There was nothing unpredictable about the results when the second series of matches in the Wairarapa-Bush Rugby Union's premier division competition were played on Saturday.
Marist, Eketahuna, Carterton, Pioneer and East Coast all justified their warm favouritism but at least a couple of them had to work overtime to grab the spoils.
Defending champions Carterton were clearly in that category. They had to fight tooth and nail to stave off a determined Martinborough by a solitary point, 23 to 22, in a match in which both sides ran in three tries.
Longtime Wairarapa-Bush representative Tomasi Kedrabuka was a standout in the Carterton pack and scored one of their tries, with the others going to S. Hull and Jono Hurley, Hurley also added one conversion and one penalty. Lively front rower Adam Marshall ran in two tries for Martinborough.
Kevin Te Kani also scored a try for the green-and-blacks and Greg Dennes kicked one penalty and two conversions.
Pioneer moved out to a 28-10 lead over Greytown but a spirited fightback left them clinging on to win by just 28-22.
Tipene Haira, Henry Te Whare, Joe Papaali and Dennis Paku scored tries for Pioneer and Haira added four conversions. PJ Freeman, Brett Atkins and Richard Pope were the try scorers for Greytown and Rhys Lett kicked two conversions and one penalty.
Central Districts Maori representative Wiremu Grace ran in two tries for Eketahuna in their 37-20 win over Masterton Red Star in the first premier division club game played at Mangatainoka for many years.
Daniel Griffin and Y van Beck also scored tries for Eketahuna and Joe Hull kicked two penalties and three conversions. Heemi Tupaea crossed for two tries for Masterton Red Star and T. Lagologa one and Jamie Fraser kicked one penalty and one conversion.
There was a big and vocal crowd at Featherston to watch the home team's return to premier division action after an absence of several years and while they were on the end of a 78-12 beating by an impressive East Coast side they did have the satisfaction of running in two tries of their own.
Pacy Wairarapa-Bush utility back Nic Olson scored three of East Coast's 12 tries with others going to Joe Feast, Byron Karaitiana, D. Porter (3), Sam Mitchell (2), Jesse McGilvary and Matt O'Connor. Porter kicked seven conversions and Karaitiana two. D. Sinclair and P. Jones scored the Featherston tries and S. Sinclair kicked one conversion.
Puketoi were forced to default their match with Marist at Memorial Park due to a shortage of players. But with some Marist players donning the Puketoi colours two sides got together for a friendly hit out and entertained a small crowd with some entertaining rugby. Marist won 71-0.