Aorangi Stokes (left) of Old Boys Marist fends off Waipu's Eli Jones in his side's opening win of the Southern District Premiers competition. Photo / Tania Whyte
Aorangi Stokes (left) of Old Boys Marist fends off Waipu's Eli Jones in his side's opening win of the Southern District Premiers competition. Photo / Tania Whyte
A tidy effort around the breakdown helped Old Boys Marist to a 43-20 win in their season-opener against Waipu at the weekend.
However, Old Boys had a touch of uncertainty leading into Saturday's match via a few pre-season organisational jitters.
Stepping into the role of head coach about six weeksfrom the start of the Southern District Premiers competition, Pat Stevens put his hand up to steady the ship.
"We were worried about the set piece going into it," Stevens says. "There wasn't a lot of pre-season.
"[But] we went into the game playing our own game, not committing too many players to the ruck, looking for turnovers at the breakdowns then getting it wide to make use of our backs."
"We went well," Stevens says of his team's patience around the breakdown, which proved its weight in gold under pressure.
"Overall it was a pretty good effort.
"There's a lot of new guys who played their first game for the club as well as a couple of guys who have come up from the reserves."
Leading from the front in the 43-20 win was Old Boy's loose forward and captain Ethan Crutcher.
Stevens says Crutcher produced several "good turnovers, good carries and good tackles", in his side's win and played well off the openside flank.
In other games of the Southern District Premiers competition opening round, Mid Western had a narrow 7-6 loss versus Western Sharks and Wellsford had a hefty 56-12 win over Hora Hora.
Mid Northern also had a convincing round one win beating Hikurangi 56-13.
Meanwhile, the Otamatea Hawks won a hard-fought match against Kamo, coming away with a well-earned 22-18 win.
