Sparking belief in dormant HSOB

Got the ball away: OBM first five Moses Christie passes the ball during a Poverty Bay premier club rugby match against HSOB. OBM retained the Peter Martin Cup with a 55-22 win at the Oval on Saturday.Picture by Paul Rickard

Scorelines don’t always tell the story.

Enterprise Cars OBM defeated High School Old Boys 55-22 in Poverty Bay premier club rugby on Saturday but for more than 60 minutes of a match in which the Peter Martin Cup was up for grabs, it was anyone’s.

“I actually thought with 20 minutes to go we were going to win it,” Earthwork Solutions HSOB coach Wayne Ensor said.

“We let in that one driving try — which was a good try for them — our heads dropped and then we had two guys sin-binned and were down to 13 men.

“They scored 30 points in the last 15 minutes.”

His OBM counterpart, Dillon Dolman-Tuhou, was impressed with the way they started and finished, but acknowledged there was still plenty to work on.

“It was a great start by us. I was really happy with the first 20 minutes,” said Dolman-Tuhou said.

“After the yellow card, we lost our way a little bit, HSOB capitalised and scored two quick tries down the wing.

“But I’m happy with the win.”

Despite the 30-point difference, Ensor said it was a massive improvement from his side from opening day.

“We have been trying to convince the team of the potential they have. They got three really good tries and I think that kind of sparked a bit of belief in themselves.”

OBM fullback Moses Christie opened the scoring early in the game held at the Oval with the first of his two tries.

Winger Solomoni Rosari ran in tries one after the other to put his side 15-0 up but when he was sinbinned for a high tackle, HSOB took advantage.

Fullback Matthew Proffit replied with two tries — the first of those converted by first five Bryan Howard — to reduce the deficit to 15-12.

OBM hit back before the halftime break when prop Ngahiwi Manuel went over for the first of a hat-trick of five-pointers in an outstanding individual effort.

Christie banged over the conversion to give OBM a 22-12 halftime lead.

HSOB came out firing and were within three points again when hooker Jody Tuhaka scored early and Howard converted.

Howard then slotted a penalty kick to lock it up at 22-all.

OBM struck back with tries to Manuel and Christie, who converted his own five-pointer to put them 12 points ahead.

The floodgates open late in the game when Profitt and prop Rupeni Seruitakana were yellow-carded in the 73rd minute.

Manuel nabbed his third try, centre Michael Fox and replacement forward Blake Beard also scored five-pointers and Christie’s three conversions blew out the score.

Christie and Manuel were stand outs in the win.

“Mo and Nga played really well,” Dolman-Tuhou said. “It was good to see.”

Lock and captain Fletcher Scammell was HSOB’s Most Valuable Player while Manuel was OBM’s MVP.

OBM meet Waikohu at Te Karaka this weekend and HSOB host Pirates at the Oval.

OBM 55 (Ngahiwi Manuel 3, Moses Christie 2, Solomoni Rasari 2, Michael Fox, Blake Beard tries; Christie 5 con).

HSOB 22 (Matthew Proffit 2, Jody Tuhaka tries; Bryan Howard 2 con, pen).

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