OBM snatch late cup win

Critical tries . . . . . HSOB powerhouse prop Salesi Niuvao crashes through the OBM defence for one of his two tries as victory began to look likely. But OBM had the last say in the dying minutes, snatching a successful Peter Martin Cup defence from the jaws of handing it over. Pictures by Paul Rickard

High School Old Boys had one hand on a treasure they have hunted for high and low.

But Rikki Terekia’s Enterprise Cars OBM came from 14-19 down at halftime, to pip their arch-rivals 29-24 and retain the Peter Martin Cup. The derby clash for the cup was ferociously fought to the last.

“I told our boys — be happy with the win, but know that we can improve on that performance,” said OBM captain, blindside flanker Terekia.

“Our scrum was dominant but HSOB had the better of the line-out. We hustled, played with desperation on defence — we had to — because they had more opportunities to score.”

HSOB skipper George Halley-Donnelly put the rivalry between the clubs in perspective.

“I’ve been wearing this club’s jersey for six years. In the lead-up to today, as a HSOB man — and it would be the same for any OBM man — I told my team that if I could choose two games in the whole season to win, they would be this one and the grand final.”

Terekia won the coin toss and OBM first-five Reeftahn Brown-Terekia kicked off into a gusting nor’ wester.

As the two-time defending champions did against OBM last weekend, a fired-up HSOB outfit scored the first two tries, through tighthead prop Salesi Niuvao in the seventh minute and second-five Cohen Loffler, 13 minutes in.

First-five Bryan Howard converted Loffler’s try, which came from a great chase on a grubber-kick from midfield partner Rylan Tuwairua-Brown.

HSOB had set an attacking scrum 10m into OBM’s half in the lead-up to Loffler’s try. The first try to Niuvao came about from an attacking line-out 5m from the corner. One ruck later, scrum-anchor Niuvao scored 8m in from touch.

In the 18th minute, Terekia, perhaps the most dangerous player off tap-kicks in Poverty Bay rugby, scored for OBM. Referee Joel Pearse, at 16 the youngest whistle-blower in Poverty Bay’s premier club rugby history, awarded OBM a penalty in front of the posts. OBM’s skipper zipped left to dot the ball down and with Brown-Terekia’s conversion, the score was 12-7 to HSOB.

After a hair-raising period for OBM in which they won a defensive scrum 5m off the touch, 5m from their own goal-line, had a clearing kick charged down and were penalised, HSOB scored their third try. HSOB spread the ball wide and put fullback Matt Proffitt in position to cut back off a passs from halfback Halley-Donnelly. He went in to the left of the posts for 19-7 with Howard’s conversion.

On halftime Pearse, from a line-out 15m from the corner, the ball went loose, Terekia snaffled it and went on the run. He was tackled just short of the line, laid the ball back, was first to arrive at the next ruck, and dived open-side to ground the ball to the right of the posts.

HSOB led 19-14 at the break.

OBM scrummaged strongly and HSOB’s Selisio Pasula, ball in hand, had his progress checked by Brown-Terekia in the best one-on-one tackle of the year. Tighthead props Ratu Nairoroi (OBM ball-carrier) and Jacob Hatton (tackler) met in the heaviest contact of the game shortly after that.

With HSOB attacking,  OBM first-five Austin Brown was given a yellow card.

In the 53rd minute, Niuvao scored HSOB’s fourth try from a goal-line ruck, to end a 12-phase barrage. His try was not converted.

OBM began a comeback and in the 64th minute, after five phases of play, Ilaisa Talebulamai  scored in the right corner.

OBM drew level in the 73rd minute. From a scrum at halfway, No.8 Netani Seruwaqa surged, found Rosari on his left. Rosari picked up No.8 Jokatama Ciwa on the fly and he scored in the left corner.

Ciwa scored the match-winning try for OBM in the 82nd minute. He threw a dummy pass and burrowed through the Blue and Whites’ last line of defence 16m in from the corner.

OBM had trailed from go almost to whoa and won the game on fulltime.

Halley-Donnelly’s fast-improving HSOB side will meet Pirates this Saturday. OBM have a bye in Week 3 and will play Waikohu at Te Karaka on April 27.