One more hurdle between Coast and glory

East Coast coach Joe McClutchie was pondering their national second division semifinal chances less than a month ago.

Yesterday, he admitted he had turned his focus on winning the championship well before his team beat Nelson Bays 21-12 in one of the second division semifinals at Ruatoria.

Hawkes Bay beat Manawatu 23-15 in the other semifinal at Napier, where the final will be played on Sunday.

Yesterday's result continued a fairy-tale season for the East Coasters after they won promotion from the third division last year.

"It's amazing how things can change," McClutchie said. "When we came up, some people were banking on us to immediately drop back."

All the points came from penalty goals, Mano Flutey kicking seven for the home side and Ross Soper four for Nelson Bays.

Nelson led 12-9 at the break, but East Coast were well in control in the second half. Each time Nelson threatened, Flutey would keep the scoreboard ticking over with some booming penalties.

One of East Coast's stars, No 8 Wirihana Raihania, said his team concentrated on simple rugby.

"That's been our game plan right through the year and we didn't change anything today. I think the experience is coming through.

"We trained once a week for earlier matches, then we stepped up to twice last week, and who knows, it might be three this week."

Further down the coast, Napier Boys' High School fullback Glen Horton celebrated his NPC debut with two tries for Hawkes Bay.

The 18-year-old scored in each half of the home side's 23-15 victory over Manawatu and deserved the man-of-the-match award.

He also shone with his defensive work and ability under the high ball.

Just as prominent as Horton in the winning backline was experienced second five-eighth Murdoch Paewai.

He scored Hawkes Bay's second try after some clever inter-passing with in-form hooker Mo Schwalger, and set up Horton's second try.

Hawkes Bay led 18-3 at halftime.

The third division final will be an all-South Island affair between North Otago and South Canterbury in Oamaru next Monday.

In Timaru, South Canterbury held off a late charge from Wairarapa-Bush to win 18-14 and North Otago scored seven tries at home to hammer Poverty Bay 43-20.

South Canterbury wore down a gallant Wairarapa-Bush after a fired-up second quarter in which they ran up a 15-point lead on the back of a solid forward effort.

With Brett Williamson scoring a try in his 50th game, South Canterbury went to the halftime break comfortably ahead, 15-3.

Wairarapa-Bush came out determined to close the gap in the second half and applied an enormous amount of pressure. But until the 72nd minute, when Jason Adamson scored, all they could come up were three penalties to Darren Kapene.

It was almost a repeat of the round-robin match where only two points separated the teams.

In Oamaru, powerful winger Pila Fifita scored four tries as North Otago shot into the final for the second successive year. Fifita's touchdowns equalled a 54-year North Otago record for one game.

- NZPA