Ruapehu captain Roman Tutauha looks to be driven over the line by his forward pack in the 90 point win over Ngamatapouri.
McCarthy's Transport Ruapehu have not let the grass grow under their feet since the retirement of several of their 2017 Tasman Tanning Premier championship squad.
A fresh and motivated line-up of remaining veterans and talented newcomers destroyed an underprepared and lethargic Settler's Honey Ngamatapouri 95-5 up the Waitotara Valley on Saturday.
Despite the absence of Craig Clare, Ruapehu's backline showed excellent co-ordination with ball in hand, as they were patient to find the gaps and then exploit them inside the home team's 22m, which they reached constantly.
Centre Troy Brown was absolutely dynamic, running with the ball in the both hands and shrugging his way through innocuous upper body tackling to score four tries, while lightning winger Shaquille Waara combined pace with poise to grab a hatrick.
First-five Mitchell Millar dominated the kicking duel in general play while his team gave him plenty of conversion practice, landing ten.
While Ruapehu had both their Hakaraia brother props – Gabriel and Te Uhi – come out of the match with minor leg knocks, the pack still dominated with the double try-scoring loose forward trio of Campbell Hart, Jamie Hughes and the eager youngster Jack Kinder having a blast.
Lock Jackson Campbell made a mess of plenty of Ngamatapouri lineouts.
Despite scoring a quick reply to Ruapehu's opening try, Ngamatapouri were missing Samu Kubunavanua with ten stitches in his finger, and their lack of fitness and cohesion was painfully evident – often running into each other when trying to spread the ball, dropping it cold in the tackle, and ineffective kicks which Millar just ate up and sent back over their heads.
Hooker Eon Wallace carried a workload on defence, making some desperate tackles round the bootlaces, while fullback Sheldon Pakinga-Mahine tried his absolutely best to stop the wall of Ruapehu jersey's coming at him, and then attempted to manufacture some attack in the final quarter when his team mates were reduced to a jog.
Having accepted a bonus point win as early as the first quarter, Ruapehu coach Daisy Alabaster was already looking ahead, feeling sympathy for the hosts.
"Like a lot of clubs, they're struggling.
"We've been training for a while, and we're looking reasonably fit.
"One game at a time, we'll see what happens next week."
Ngamatapouri coach Richard Carston gave his team the headmaster-style talk in the huddle post match, having had nowhere near enough bodies at training during the week, as the club had been close to defaulting the game.
"It's the same old, same old, turning up to train, [just] 8-10.
"I said, 'now you know what it's like to be on the receiving end'. We used to dish it out in Senior, but this is a new grade.
"You've got to come to training, or else you don't know what the game plan is and we're just going through the motions."
In the early exchanges, following on from big runs by Hart and captain Roman Tutauha, Ruapehu spread the ball to Waara, who stepped his way through traffic and fed Brown back inside, with Hughes coming over to take the pass and score beside posts.
Ruapehu ran the kickoff back and Kinder lost it in the tackle, as Ngamatapouri fired the pass to centre Jim Seruwalu, then another wide ball went down and while the visitors claimed it went forward, Ngamatapouri played on and Pakinga-Manhine scored in the corner.
Ruapehu were undetered as halfback Kahl Elers-Green cleaned up a loose pass and ran hard with tacklers barely holding him, as Ruapehu worked into the far corner and Brown snuck down the blindside to open his account.
With the kickoff not going 10m, Ruapehu swept onto attack with winger William King making a good charge, with a rampant Brown immediately probing from the ruck, and after more sustained build-up he found his opening slipped the tackle to score.
Ruapehu's ball runners either brushed off the upper body tackles or drove head down through them, getting to the line again as Hart and Kinder each took a hit up, and then the gap opened at the chalk for Elers-Green to just fed Hart again to dive through.
A forward's drive from a penalty lineup pushed Ngamatapouri up and backwards, with Kinder likely to not get an easier try this season for 31-5 in the first quarter.
Brown was on fire in setting up Waara's first try as he recovered a fumbled pass and drew in three defenders before offloading to give the speedy winger a clean dash for the corner flag.
Ruapehu were now lining up for tries as fullback George Williams linked with Brown, who found Waara, and although a couple of Ruapehu passes were delayed longer than needed, reserve Shaun Morahan went close and then Elers-Green dived over from the tryline ruck for 43-5 at halftime.
Ruapehu started to make a couple of errors in their eagerness to score, but they still had all the territory and Ngamatapouri first-five Isi Baleitavuku's high risk chip kick from his own tryline only led to King taking it and putting Kinder away for his double.
Brown attacked the far corner, dragging tacklers with him, and Elers-Green had another simple dive through empty cover defence at the ruck for his own double.
Straight from the kickoff, Hart ranged wide and Elers-Green fed Kinder, who stepped through two tackles and found Hughes to dash through the gap for yet another double at 62-5.
Even when Ruapehu fumbled, Ngamatapouri offered nothing, as Brown ran hard from a scrum win and although he didn't link with King, the recycling was rapid and Waara was off to the corner.
Brown could bobble a pass but still had time to regather and drive to the tryline, with Hart then taking the ruck pass and just shrugging dark green jerseys off him to go under the posts.
Triple figures were looming as Ruapehu got another free kick and Tutauha stepped through the shattered defence, with the long pass finding Brown to get his hatrick at the corner for 83-5.
Another long Waara bust was eventually stopped, but Elers-Green again saw no defenders around the ruck – cutting through and then flicking a reverse pass back to Waara for his hatrick.
There was still just enough time for Millar to try an attacking chip kick, and Brown took one pass off the ruck to make it a quartet off the final play.
Ruapehu 95 (T Brown 4, S Waara 3, J Hughes 2, C Hart 2, J Kinder 2, K Elers-Green 2 tries; M Millar 10 con) bt Ngamatapouri 5 (S Pakinga-Manhine try). HT: 43-5.