Peceli Malanicagi, pictured playing for Whanganui, scored a second-half try for Kaierau on Saturday.
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On a chilly Saturday afternoon under the mountain, Wanganui Car Centre Kaierau locked in a home Tasman Tanning Premier semifinal while honouring a dear departed friend.
Motivated by the passing of beloved life member and clubrooms manager Merv Benson, who died on Thursday morning aged 78, Kaierau scrambled their way to a 31-15 win over a likewise committed home team McCarthy’s Transport Ruapehu – desperate for their first win since returning to Premier grade this season.
Despite quite a few different personnel on both teams, the match took on a vague similarity to the last time these sides met at Ohakune’s Rochfort Park in a Premier fixture, Kaierau hanging on 22-15 in 2021.
This time, the outcome was not decided until the final 10 minutes when Kaierau reserve Fagan Lemalie stepped through to score from close range from an offload by standout centre Apolosi Tanoa, who broke through tackle attempts by Ruapehu’s young outside backline to set up another try and score two of his own.
Other than that, Kaierau were not able to execute as strongly on the wider fringes as they did in warm conditions at the Country Club in the teams’ previous meeting in early May, which slowed this match down and turned it into more of a battle of the set-piece ball, suiting Ruapehu’s style of play.
Their veterans turned the clock back as a battered Roman Tutauha, starting at No 8 before switching to his preferred hooker role, scored off the back of a classic Ruapehu lineout drive, while reserve lock Nick Cranston came on early for an injury and pinched a couple of Kaierau lineout throws, took plenty of carries and scored off a tryline ruck himself to be the home team’s best.
Steelform Whanganui flanker Jamie Hughes played at first five-eighths, but did not return for the second half after he got flipped by a low tackle during a carry, which set off a couple of wrestling skirmishes and jersey-pulling between the sides before everyone got back to playing football.
Another standout for Ruapehu when he came on was reserve outside back Takarangi Metekingi, who produced some great cover tackles on Kaierau’s Fijian flyers, while also snuffing out three dangerous attacking kicks.
While not finding the same space he opened up in the first encounter, Kaierau fullback Peceli Malanicagi was always dangerous and like Tanoa eventually found gaps in the line to dash through for a couple of scything runs and a good second half try.
Flankers Brett Joyes and Doug Horrocks were up for the tough stuff – Horrocks’ only blemish being when he was sin binned near fulltime for a professional foul with his side defending their tryline.
However, the remaining members of the Kaierau pack held firm to deny Ruapehu the consolation of what would have been just their second bonus point try this season.
Kaierau assistant coach Danny Tamehana knew from previous trips north with other clubs just how tough Rochfort Park can be.
“Home advantage, Ruapehu are never going to go away so you have to come up here and want to play and actually get stuck in, you can’t hold back.
“Otherwise it makes it harder across the whole 80 minutes, so a big battle, and that’s what you don’t want.
“We wanted to be good at set piece but also play an open game, which means we’ve got to run the channels, which we didn’t do that well today.
“So we sort of got caught into their trap a little bit, that close-quarters stuff, so that’s just something we’ve got to work on and move forward.”
In a tight match, you need X-factor players to spark something, and Tanoa had provided that.
“He ran some good lines, but all credit to the boys at set-piece time for him to go, I think the [tries] were actually off set piece,” said Tamehana.
“So the boys were doing their job up front and then he was just finishing off and running some good lines.
“[Securing second place] something that we wanted, so next week we can only look at everything and try things to prepare for the semis.”
Ruapehu coach Andrew Evans knew his side had given their best.
“Just our execution on the little things let us down today, just that sort of last pass or catching that last pass or just doing that last job.
“But really rapt with the boys’ effort, the switch flipped this week on attitude, and that’s what we’ve been harping on about, so we performed better even though we didn’t win.
“Nick had a good game today, I thought one of the boys that had a really good game was Morvin Trow, who hasn’t played a lot of rugby [this season] but he played really well for us.
“[Metekingi] that’s probably some of the best rugby he’s played this year.”
It’s not a new story, but while Ruapehu still have Whanganui-level players across their forwards and the halfback to first five-eighths spine, they are just lacking a couple of dangermen out wide to counteract those the other four Premier squads have available.
“It’s a little like size – you can’t change size and you can’t really train speed, which we probably haven’t got boys that are quick-as, which Kaierau had,” said Evans.
Kaierau 31 (A Tanoa 2, S Pakinga-Manhire, P Malanicagi, F Lemalie tries; Pakinga-Manhire 3 con) Ruapehu 15 (R Tutauha, N Cranston, M Wisnewski tries). HT: 12-5.