Marist Celtic beat Ruapehu 44-25 to win the Whanganui club rugby senior title. Photo / Bevan Conley
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After 14 years of effort, frustration, and emotion, Ali Arc Logistics – TD Brick & Blocks Celtic are once again the champions of WRFU Senior rugby.
And it was the speed of their younger generation that brought them the silverware after the grit of their veteran forwards held up a brave and determined McCarthy's Transport Ruapehu forward pack in front of two very passionate fan bases in the Division 1 final at Cooks Gardens on Saturday.
The 44-25 scoreline only blew out in the final two minutes, as in the early stages, Celtic wanted to move the ball in perfect conditions, but found the country team keeping them out of the 22m with solid counter rucking.
Ruapehu then opened the scoring through a penalty by their former Steelform Whanganui halfback Kahl Elers-Green, who played a blinder.
Celtic couldn't reply through Te Herureu Koro, who had bad luck that the clock tower gong started chiming right when he made his penalty kick run-up, although the young winger would very much redeem the miss.
Elers-Green added another penalty for 6-0 after 19 minutes, but against the run of play, Marist's backs uncorked a ripper of a 75m try as player-of-the-day Lafo Tearikii Ah Ching broke through the line and stepped another tackler, before finding fullback Kobe Millar inside to run under the posts.
Ruapehu stayed focused and worked back into the 15m through forwards pick-and-go, getting down to the line where Elers-Green spotted the half gap at the ruck and dived through for a try he also converted.
But that six-point lead did not last long after halftime as another big run by Ah Ching led to a chip kick which bounced right behind the goal posts, away from diving players of both teams, before Celtic collected it in front of the tryline and lock Cory Chant dived off the ruck to score.
Koro converted and then landed a superb 42m penalty kick for a 17-13 turnaround in the 45th minute.
Again, Ruapehu lifted another gear as following a penalty lineout the pack drove at the line, then Elers-Green went blindside and pulled in the defenders before offloading to No8 Kevin McDonnell to score, with the halfback slotting the difficult conversion.
Celtic wasted no time in replying as blindside flanker Paul Webster dashed wide down the left hand touch and found reserve back Dareus Hina-Pauro inside with a looping pass to score and put his side back in front.
Koro slotted another penalty in the 61st minute, and it looked like Celtic might have sealed it when from a scrum on halfway, Millar ran wide and swept through three diving cover tackles to scorch away for a brilliant individual try.
Celtic still wanted to play up-tempo coming out of their half, which led to a mistake, and from the scrum, Ruapehu hit up and recycled quickly before spreading to put reserve winger Kaiwhare McLeod over in the corner for 32-25 with seven minutes left.
But no one was going to deny Celtic on this day, as a couple of penalties brought them back on to attack, and No8 Maikara McDonnell took a quick tap and dived through to score.
Safe with 90 seconds remaining, Celtic attacked straight from the restart as they broke out and dashed off again for Koro to score in the corner – handing the conversion duties to Campbell Crosson to wrap things up.
"It's been a very, very long time coming," said delighted coach Duane Brown.
"A couple of boys here played in that last final and won it, so it was them that we played for, to repeat that win and send them off on a good note.
"There was a few things we did well in that first half, and the second half was just about repeating that and just doing better, the rest will come.
"The second half, you could see that we had a lot of ball, got the go forward, fronted up then, and scored a few tries out wide.
"It was for Marist and our supporters."
Ruapehu manager Jamie Brock was still proud of the team's efforts as a solely Senior club in 2022.
"From a pretty rough start to second, that's not bad going.
"[Celtic] totally changed it up that second half, the boys didn't keep up, and they got away."
Marist Celtic 44 (K Millar 2, C Chant, D Hina-Pauro, M McDonnell, T Koro tries; Koro 2 pen, 3 con, C Crosson con) bt Ruapehu 25 (K Elers-Green, K McDonnell, K McLeod tries; Elers-Green 2 pen, 2 con). HT: 13-7 Ruapehu.
Bennett's Taihape got WRFU club finals day starting right for their big travelling contingent with two finals to watch, after they defeated perpetual champions Kelso Hunterville 40-28 at Spriggens Park.
In a back-and-forth first half, Taihape turned over the kickoff and worked up for centre Paora McCarthy to score, before Hunterville replied when their centre and Wanganui cricket representative Angus Dinwiddie fended through near touch and ran off to score, with fullback Leigham Harding converting.
Taihape No8 Joseph Cowley found a gap at a midfield ruck to set up halfback Cully Noble scoring, with first-five Tyrese Payne converting in the 11th minute.
The action stayed fast and furious as Harding closed the gap to 12-10 with a penalty, before Hunterville took control to lead 20-12.
Taihape came roaring back, scoring twice to take a 26-20 lead into halftime, which they later extended to 33-25.
Hunterville closed it up with three more points, but another seven points completed a strong second half of the season for Taihape, after they had finished at the bottom of the Country group in Round 1.
Taihape bt Kelso Huntervillle 40-28. HT: 26-20.