League: Pirate fullback locked in dream run

Pirate Panthers celebrate a second consecutive Hawke's Bay premier rugby league grand-final title win. Photo / Warren Buckland

Pirate 42 MAC 6 HB rugby league

Matt Garland is having a dream first year in Hawke's Bay premier sport.

On Saturday Garland, 23, who arrived in the Bay from Brisbane this year, added a Hawke's Bay premier club rugby league grand-final title to his CV when defending champions Pirate Panthers walloped MAC Pacific Warriors 42-6 at Bill Mathewson Park, Hastings.

In August he was a member of the Pirate rugby union team that won the Maddison Trophy premier final.

But he wants more.

"I'm off to Brisbane for two weeks to play for Whenua Ariki in a Queensland rugby competition. Basically we're a Queensland Maori team and we take on the likes of Queensland Samoans, Queensland Tongans and other indigenous teams. The Queensland Tongans won the title last year and we want to take the title off them.

"When I return I'm going to try and make the Hawke's Bay Sevens team. It's all part of my quest to make the Hawke's Bay Magpies in future," Garland said.

Playing fullback for the Panthers, Garland sparked numerous counterattacks and had a hand in most of his team's eight tries. Scrumhalf Matt Murtha was also classy in the winning backline.

Captain and prop Leon McEnteer and hooker Tione Hubbard had huge work rates in the Panthers pack. All of the Wallace Sullivan-coached Panthers deserve praise for their defensive work.

To be fair they didn't have to do much on defence because the ill-disciplined Warriors were too one-dimensional on attack. Far too often they went up the guts when they should have used their talented backs to stretch the defence out wide.

The Warriors also conceded too many soft penalties. Referee Shane Foster, a former Unicorns winger, was again polished and awarded nine penalties to the Panthers, eight more than the Warriors received.

Substitute back Tom Iosefo was dangerous when given the opportunity for the Warriors.

Prop Amiga Mikaele was tireless and deserved his side's only try.

For Panthers standoff David Neilson, who converted five of his team's eight tries, the victory completed a memorable winter as he had captained Napier Pirate Rugby and Sports to Maddison Trophy glory.

Two weeks later his partner, Claire McGettigan, was a member of the Otane Force team that won Hawke's Bay's premier netball title.

As McEnteer collected the trophy he had a handy piece of advice for the Warriors: "If you guys had concentrated on playing league instead of fighting you would have done better."

McEnteer encouraged his troops to return next year to attempt a threepeat. None of the Warriors were around to listen to McEnteer's victory speech.

They were obviously embarrassed with their performance. Warriors player-coach Setu Kereti, who asked Foster to call the game off when the niggle from his troops became too much with five minutes left, agreed handling errors had let his side down.

"Most of our boys are new to league and today they realised finals day is totally different to previous weeks."

When quizzed on whether or not his team would be back next year he replied "possibly".

Earlier in the day Bridge Pa beat Bay Bulldogs 50-22 in the reserve grade final and Hastings Rugby and Sports pipped MAC 28-26 in a thrilling women's grade final.