In the absence of the injured forwards, Peter Travis Hay-Horton (moon boot) and Sam Reeves, assistant coach and No 8 Tremaine Gilbert had a very strong 60-minute shift, including driving through tacklers for Taihape’s sole first-half try.
His departure saw former Whanganui skipper Dane Whale, who started at blindside flanker, move back out to second-five and take charge of battle plans, as reserve forwards Kaleb Sweet, Te Uhi Hakaraia and Miller Kelsey made big gains.
The hosts scored through lock Mitchell Overton being driven through by the pack on one side of the field and then evergreen fullback Blake James, covering the absent Tyler Rogers-Holden, doing the same on the other.
Rātana could have still sealed the match at 25-23 as they got Taihape trapped inside their 30m with first a scrum and then a lineout, but proceeded to infringe at both and let the home side grind their way back up the park.
Getting another penalty down in the pocket, Taihape opted for the scrum and drove with the ball at Sweet’s feet and, as a Rātana hand reached through to rake the pill back, the referee had no choice but to jog to the posts.
Both teams were reduced to 14 men at different times through two yellow cards each – as there were a few willing exchanges in what became a passionate country game.
Taihape coach Sefo Bourke acknowledged that while they are missing some key players, those who remain still know how to deliver in crunch time.
“Especially with Dane out there and a few of those other boys, but our bench really stood up today, really impactful – especially that last 5-10 minutes,“ he said.
“I thought the option to take a scrum right at the end was probably the best option, especially going to a lineout ball where it’s always 50-50, pressure moments like that.
“A couple of defensive lapses let them score a couple of tries, plus they’re a really slick backline.
“We didn’t play how we wanted to, but in the pressure moments right in the end there, we kept our heads.”
Rātana coach Jamie Hughes wanted his team to take the painful lesson about keeping composed when momentum starts to turn.
“Rugby’s an 80-minute game - I think we might have played 90 minutes today.
“We had chances to close the game out, but Taihape, true credit to them, they come back right at the end and got it right on the death, so congratulations to them.
“We had a few debutants today, a few college kids stepping up and playing in the front row, so that’s good to see those young fellas come through and get some good minutes too – they didn’t let us down.”
