Sneaky Reekie sinks Bay

Poverty Bay lock Morgan Reedy runs down the sideline in a Heartland Championship match against Mid Canterbury on Saturday at the Oval. The Bay, wearing special pink jerseys which are being auctioned on Trade Me as a Gisborne East Coast Cancer Society fundraiser, lost to a late drop goal. Picture by Paul Rickard

A drop goal in the 79th minute decided a thrilling Week 4 Heartland Championship match at the Oval on Saturday.

Civil Project Solutions Poverty Bay Wekas fought back with a late try double to fullback Ricardo Patricio to level the game only for Mid Canterbury replacement midfielder Tom Reekie to snatch a 23-20 victory with a drop goal.

It was a thrilling end to a tight contest from the first whistle with both sides hungry to earn valuable championship points.

The home side wore pink jerseys for the “Whanau Day” match. These are being auctioned on the Poverty Bay union’s Trade Me page with all proceeds going to Gisborne East Coast Cancer Society.

Ra Broughton, back in the halfback seat, kept the Wekas forward pack moving with perfectly placed box-kicks to keep the pressure on the southerners while the Bay’ physicality in the tackle area improved markedly.

The MC Hammers opened the scoring inside the opening 10 minutes with a try to No.8 Michael Hennings — converted by first-five Josh Jennings.

Poverty Bay struck back with a penalty kick from first-five Kelvin Smith.

Jennings put them 10-3 ahead with a penalty kick and that was the score at halftime.

The Wekas suffered a huge blow in the 43rd minute when Smith injured his leg in a tackle and was unable to continue. Mitch Purvis replaced him at pivot.

Patricio took up the kicking duties and closed the gap to 10-6 with a penalty in the 48th minute

It was tit-for-tat as Jennings responded with a penalty for 13-6.

The first of Patricio’s double was individual brilliance. He received a high ball on his own 10-metre line, executed a chip-and-chase, got the bounce, then weaved and stepped his way through Hammers defence to score a superb and well-needed try as the crowd went wild.

He converted his own try in the 61st minute to deadlock the score at 13-apiece.

Mid Canterbury retook the lead with a second try to Kenning in the 66th minute. Jennings then slotted a conversion attempt from the corner for 20-13.

Poverty Bay applied the heat in their efforts to close the gap. Attempt after attempt was repelled by Mid Canterbury before the ball finally went wide to Patricio and with an inside step, he shook off the defence to score in the 77th minute.

He converted the try to level it 20-all.

With time almost up, Reekie took it on himself and went for the drop goal from about 30 metres and the ball wobbled its way between the sticks for 23-20 — Mid Canterbury’s second win of the competition.

Wekas head coach Miah Nikora said that they had a great week of preparation but were unable to transfer it to the pitch.

Losing Smith was a massive blow and it appears he will be out for at least this week’s derby game.

“He has nearly 70 caps now and is one of our leaders and our general. He will definitely be missed. Mitch came on for first five and did a really great job. He took the ball to the line well, gave the boys some really good direction and did a good job for us.

Patricio’s performance was “outstanding”. It was his first try that “sparked” the team into gear.

“He then carried on with that throughout the second half . . . two tries, nailed his goal kicks and looked to be a real threat every time he touched the ball.

“In the first half, our backs were working with scraps and we weren’t getting any headway.

“In the second half, our forwards tightened up a bit and ran with a bit more vigour and provided our backs with a platform.”

The Bay collected a losing bonus point and are sitting eighth on the table .

They will be against it when they travel to Ruatōria this weekend to take on Ngāti Porou East Coast at Whakarua Park.

POVERTY BAY 20 (Ricardo Patricio 2 tries; Patricio 2 con, pen; Kelvin Smith pen)

MID CANTERBURY 23 (Michael Hennings 2 tries; Josh Jennings 2 con , 2 pen; Tom Reekie dg )

HT: 10-3 Mid Canterbury