Greerton Marist played their most controlled 40 minutes of rugby this season to completely dominate the second half in their crucial victory over Rangataua at Te Ariki Field on Saturday.
Trailing 11-3 to the home side at the break, Greerton took complete control from the errant kick-off by their hosts and barely spent any time defending inside their own 22 for the rest of the game.
Rangataua tried to run the ball out but kept running into a hugely impressive Greerton defensive line with flankers Daniel van den Bery and Parker Cook outstanding, and former Western Force centre Tyrone Lefau putting in some big hits.
The lack of kicking game hurt Rangataua especially as first-five Alex Jessop's running expertise was well known to his former teammates in yellow and black, who gleefully shut down his attacking space. Greerton evened the score at 11-11 after another botched attempt to run the ball by the Rangataua backs led to a dropped ball and attacking scrum feed for Greerton, who needed just three passes to put Andrew Boyd in at the corner.
Worse followed soon after when a pass was spilled in the Rangataua midfield which Lefau gratefully picked up and he sprinted 40 metres to score under the bar untouched.
