Taihape loose prop Te Uhi Hakaraia makes like a bulldozer with the ball during Saturday's match against Ngamatapouri. Photo / Merrilyn George
Close neighbours Kaierau and Marist and Border and Ngamatapouri meet in the third round of the Tasman Tanning 2022 Whanganui premier club rugby championship this weekend.
They are both important fixtures with top of the table and defending champions Border expecting a strong challenge from fellow South Taranaki opponents Ngamat at Dallison Park.
The Waitotara Valley opposition foiled the hosts 27-24 in a pre-season hit out on the same field last month and held Grand Hotel Challenge Shield holders Byford's Readimix Taihape to 25-19 last Saturday.
Border, shooting for a 17th home win on the trot, however, has never dropped a championship fixture in nine meetings since Valley joined the premier ranks in 2017.
The average winning margin is fractionally off 50-10 after victories of 54-14 at home and 51-10 away last season.
Highest scalps were 102-7 up the Valley in 2018 and 90-0 at Waverley in 2020.
Ngamat has been boosted in the past two years and impressed last weekend in holding Taihape to three tries apiece with some forceful Pacific Island style attacks.
Border followed up an opening day 38-22 home win over Wanganui Car Centre Kaierau with a 29-10 victory against Dave Hoskin Carriers Marist at Spriggens Park.
In both fixtures Border improved in the second spell after halftime leads of only six and nine points with the title-holders scoring nine tries and conceding four.
Ngamatapouri boasts probably the most dangerous attacking squad in the competition and it will be interesting to see how the raiders perform under the Waverley floodlights.
The game, as usual on the opening weekend of the duck shooting season, is played at Dallison Park on Friday night with a 7.30pm kick-off.
Ngamat will not want to give away too many kickable penalties because Craig Clare has been in good form this winter, scoring 27 points from two outings.
As the only two premier teams in the city Kaierau and Marist will be seeking "bragging rights" from their clash at the Devon Road Country Club on Saturday.
More importantly, however, will be the quest for qualifying spots in the July 9 semifinals.
On form Border and Taihape, even though it is early in the competition, look like the top two sides, Ngamatapouri could be formidable top three contenders, with Marist and Kaierau chasing the fourth qualifying slot.
Under this possible scenario the result this weekend could be vital for both the maroons and greens.
There is little between the two clubs during the new millennium with Marist ahead 20 victories to 19 including wins at the Country Club in 2018 (29-10) and last season (21-20).
Taihape sits out the bye this weekend.
Current points and games played — Border 10 (2), Taihape 9 (2), Ngamatapouri 1 (1), Kaierau 0 (1), Marist 0 (2).
Marton celebrates
Speirs Food Marton had every reason to celebrate after a fine come-from-behind 31-27 victory over defending senior champions Kelso Hunterville last weekend.
Down 12-10 at halftime Marton was in real danger of losing the Stihl Shop Wanganui Challenge Shield to the home team but staged a spirited second spell recovery to out-score the hosts 19 points to 7.
It resulted in an enjoyable short return trip to Marton after notching a first victory over the neighbours in five years.
The last success was in 2017 when Marton went through the season unbeaten, disposing of hosts Hunterville 30-3 and 25-19 on Marton Park before completing a hat-trick of victories with a convincing 30-0 romp in the one-sided final at Cooks Gardens.
Since then Hunterville won 40-5 and 32-9 in two convincing 2018 home wins and just 6-5 in 2020.
On visits to Marton Park Hunterville won 25-0 last year and drew 19-all in 2020.
The latest success gives Marton a chance of winning the Rangitikei domestic title which it last held outright in 1995, although it shared the honour with Ratana in 2012 and reigned supreme as Pourewa (Marton and Hunterville combined) in 1997-98-99.
Marton now defends the Stihl Shield at home against McCarthy Transport Ruapehu who lost 19-24 to Utiku OB in Ohakune last Saturday.
Utiku went down 34-12 to Marton in the first Challenge Shield game of the year.
Marton now holds a 4pt lead over Hunterville and Ruapehu in the Country Group of the senior championship.
Harvey Round Motors Ratana, the 2020 champions who were pipped 8-6 by Hunterville in last season's final, held off Bennett's Taihape 19-15 at the Pa last weekend and host Hunterville on Saturday in what promises to be a great tussle between the 2021 finalists.
Rival clubs Taihape and Utiku OB meet at Memorial Park.
In the senior Town Group unbeaten Gemini Pepper Construction Kaierau faces a Marist side for a second week in a row at the Country Club — this time Buffalos who lost 42-7 away to McCrea Scanning Counties a week ago.
Ali Arc Logistics — DNA Kennel's Marist Celtic, who suffered a sizable 40-10 defeat at Kaierau, play Border at Waverley at 6pm on Friday night.
Black Bull Liquor Pirates who scored 11 tries in demolishing a depleted Border side that turned up with only 10 players, last weekend, plays Counties at McNab Domain on Saturday.
Last week Pirates loaned the Waverley team a few players but the lop-sided game was eventually called off 15min into the second half with the hosts ahead 73-0.
Senior points after two of five qualifying rounds —
Town Group — Kaierau 9, Pirates (51pts diff), Counties (19), Celtic (-8) and Border (-73) 5 each, Buffalos 0.
Country Group — Marton 10, Hunterville (4) and Ruapehu (-5) 6 each, Utiku OB 5, Ratana 4, Taihape 1.
Queen's Birthday match
Whanganui will host a representative rugby fixture on Queen's Birthday Monday, June 6 — a pre Heartland four-spell non first-class clash against Wairarapa-Bush.
The two unions do not meet at first-class level this year unless they come up against each other in Bunnings Warehouse Heartland semi-finals or finals.
The Butcher Boys are unbeaten in three non first-class games against the Stags since 2003 — drawing 23-all on Cooks Gardens in 2003, winning 40-22 in a Bruce Steel Memorial Cup defence at the same venue in 2016 and 61-14 at Masterton in 2018.
In the 2018 fixture Whanganui scored nine tries, two of them from Tyler Rogers-Holden.
That season the blue and blacks finished third in the Meads Cup (upset 17-7 by visiting eventual champions Thames Valley in the semifinals) and the Stags were runners-up to Horowhenua-Kapity (6th overall) in the Lochore Cup.
This year's match is likely to be played at either Spriggens Park or the Kaierau Country Club.
Since Wairarapa and Bush merged in 1971 Whanganui has won 27 times, including by a stratchy 22-18 here last season en-route to winning the Lochore Cup, and the Stags have won 18 games.
It will be the first Queen's Birthday rep match in the city since 2017 when the Hurricane's Development XV beat Whanganui 52-12 in a non-first-class game.
Queen's Birthday Monday rugby was a popular annual attraction in Whanganui for many years, attracting huge crowds to Spriggens Park for the traditional morning encounter against neighbouring Taranaki.
Those fixtures started in 1910 and continued until fire destroyed the large wooden grandstand on January 22, 1994.
Thousands of Taranaki supporters poured into the city, occasionally on special trains, to watch the morning rugby and then the afternoon horse races over the fence at the jockey club.
After the Spriggens Park fire the Queen's Birthday fixtures switched to Cooks Gardens but Taranaki became far too powerful with the introduction of professional rugby as romps of 84-0 in 1995 at Cooks Gardens and a record 88-5 at Hawera in 2000 clearly indicated.
The last Queen's Birthday match between the two unions was at Cooks Gardens in 2001, won 38-15 by Taranaki, and since then the Mountain Province has fielded B or XV teams against the Butcher Boys apart from Ranfurly Shield fixtures.
The incidents occurred at the same commercial premises on Broadway, Marton.