Kaierau's Faafetai Siona tries to get away from his Marist opposite Ian Hawkes at the Kaierau Country Club on Saturday.
Dave Hoskin Carriers Marist have got their groove back after another profitable trip to the Country Club when they out-muscled and out-thought Wanganui Car Centre Kaierau in a 48-17 attacking exhibition on Saturday.
Having been flat in their opening games, Marist took advantage of Kaierau coming off the bye week by getting right up in their faces early on, as veteran midfielders Steelie Koro and Cameron Crowley suffocated the backline, while up front the props Viki Tofa and Ian Hawkes rode a pack with significant dominance.
Both teams like to either give the ball room out wide or kick tactically with a good chase, yet Marist's execution was far superior and by the end of the match they were playing virtual sevens style with some freaky offloads and no-look passes which kept sticking.
Kaierau had the ideas, but not the delivery, as it was notable some of their better players started off the bench with coach Denis Edwards sticking to his guns to reward those who can currently commit to every training session.
Veteran captain Ace Malo was the only Kaierau back who showed how to run the proper lines and put his support in space, and given enough of his fellow backs have at least a full season of Tasman Tanning Premier rugby under their belts, better must be expected.
Young flanker Dylan Bowater continues to show promise while hooker Sam Dawson, starting ahead of Jack Yarrall, made a couple of decent bursts.
But these were few and far between and the Marist loose forwards in Dale Pene, Nathan Puketapu and big No8 Taione Ratu were able to dictate terms around the fringes and in open play, while new first-five Mitchell Millar just grew in confidence as he got good service from veteran halfback Sean Brown.
On three occasions, split across halftime, Marist were able to immediately re-adjust when a set move broke down and switch to a different channel to score the try, thereby exposing Kaierau's lack of team continuity.
"[We did] all the things I've been telling them," said pleased Marist coach Jason Hamlin.
"The attitude was better today, the intensity was there from the start. They played some good football.
"Targeting our first 20-30 minutes because it hasn't been flash - today it was."
It had been Marist's pre-match plan to move up swiftly, although Edwards felt his team were hard done by to only get one offside penalty.
"I think they were up too early, to be honest. But they got away with it.
"When they've got a No8 that can run down my No10, it's beautiful."
Nonetheless, having had a big win and now a big loss, Kaierau were still on a learning curve as they brought the team together, Edwards said
"Some of our boys were working, and others do [train].
"Today, we got out-passioned and outplayed.
"We were playing catch up after that."
Marist opened the scoring when fullback David Pachonick came into the line and fed winger Lachlan Blackstock a perfect ball to dash away to the corner.
Both sides were guilty of infringement and getting isolated before Kaierau second-five Ethan Robinson closed the gap with a 24th minute penalty, but Marist hit back immediately by turning over the kickoff and working forward off two penalties for Ratu to tap the ball and work his way over.
Kaierau flanker Fiatau Faalili read Ratu's blindside play off the back of a 5m scrum, but Kaierau didn't read the plan's alteration as Tofa got back to take the ball onside and crash over.
Marist's forwards immediately cooked up another try on halftime as Millar regathered a knocked down ball by Faalili and spread wide, with lock Patrick Parker working with Puketapu to put Pene over untouched.
They kept up the pressure after the break as Millar doubled around Koro to get the offload and the ball was spread to winger Simon Dibben, who had a lot of work to do beating two tacklers to score.
Malo wrapped up Koro the next time, but Marist just flung the long pass back the other way for reserve forward Lake Ah Chong to drop the shoulder and beat his tackler in the corner.
Kaierau replied in kind with a well-worked try as Robinson hit the gap from an inside Malo offload and fired a long pass to Yarrall, who bumped off one tackler and fed it back to Robinson to make it 33-10.
But Marist weren't slowing up as after a series of one-off bursts, Koro switched play blind with Ah Chong, and Millar then went himself to push through the cover and force the ball at the corner flag.
It was getting embarrassing for Kaierau as Marist swept to the tryline from their own 30m with well over a dozen offloads amongst forwards and backs, with Sam Madams having come off the bench to be the recipient by burrowing through the ruck to make it 48-10.
Kaierau scored on fulltime after a free kick, with Faalili forcing it after a charge from reserve forward Joe Edwards, but it was barely consoling.
Marist 48 (L Blackstock, T Ratu, V Tofa, D Pene, S Dibben, L Ah Chong, M Millar, S Madams tries; Millar 4 con) bt Kaierau 17 (E Robinson, Faalili tries; Robinson pen, 2 con. HT: 28-3.