Hora Hora edge out Wellsford

Hora Hora frustrated defending champions Wellsford with some desperate defence and by using the rolling maul to their advantage, to win 18-7 at Centennial Park.
Leading the way with  his workload and tackle count on Saturday was  number-seven Robbie Murray, who has converted himself into a loose forward this season.

"Robbie's always wanted to be a loosie, and it's a position we were short in so we gave him a shot," Hora Hora coach Mark Seymour said.
Murray proved himself more than capable on Saturday and may find himself experimenting with a few more positions this season after No8 Rukuwai Waata broke a collar bone on Saturday - further stretching player resources at Hora Hora.
"That leaves us looking for more loosies. Joe Graham, who's still in the under-18s, did really well when he replaced him, so we're hanging in there and leaving some of the boys playing 80 minutes when they'd rather not be, but that's just club rugby isn't it?" the former Northland player said.
The result leaves Wellsford with three losses from three starts and facing another tough match against the in-form Hikurangi next round.
Fullback Matt Wright said  team  members were frustrated with the way they were playing.
"We've got pretty much the same team as last year now but something's not right. We just didn't click today," he said.
The hosts had had a huge advantage in possession and territory during the match but had made too many errors on attack to capitalise on it.
The first try was scored by Kurt Courtney, who was mauled over after a scrum in the Wellsford 22.
Wellsford pushed hard to equalise but spilled the ball within spitting distance of the Hora Hora line and Warren Dunn picked up the ball to run 70m before throwing a great inside ball to Luke Voss, who scored under the posts to put Hora Hora ahead 12-3 at the break.
 Wellsford finally broke through the defence in the second half. An Aden-Dewes run stretched the Hora Hora defence and Ataeri Davis capitalised with a try in the corner.
A knock-on from the kick-off gave Hora Hora rare field position and when Wellsford were penalised from the resulting scrum, and Hora Hora kicked to the corner.
 They won the lineout and Alan Nesbit was mauled over to increase their lead to 17-8.
The visitors were unlucky not to get a bonus point try with 10 minutes to play with referee Marius Botha deciding that another rolling maul - again from an attacking set-piece - had been held up.
"The boys were fairly adamant they'd scored a fourth try - they couldn't see why he didn't give it because he was just lying there with the ball on the ground over the try line but a win's a win and bonus points at this stage of the year aren't too important yet," Seymour said.
The coach was thrilled with the way his defence had stood up under a continual barrage caused by Wellsford's massive advantage in possession and territory.
"We had to be strong today because we didn't have a lot of ball," he said.
"We've talked about it often enough. We just have to make tackles in the 22m line without getting ourselves in a position to get penalised," he said.
The visitors were  penalised several times by the referee.

"Players have to take responsibility about what they do but it's difficult when they got away with something last week and this week it's not
allowed.
"It's just finding that consistency but that's to be expected when you change an application or interpretation of the rules," he said.