Munro penalties give a thriller to Mid Western

Kamo were denied the points from their best performance of the season by a resolute Mid Western defence, despite being on the back foot for much of the second spell.
Mid Western hung on to win 18-17 in a thriller at the Maungakaramea Domain and nobody could complain about the effort and quality shown by both teams.
In the end, it was the boot of Lachie Munro that had the final say in the match.
Munro kicked a controversial penalty - his sixth - five minutes from the final whistle to recapture the lead and although Kamo were camped in Mid Western's red zone for the rest of the game they came up short of the winning try, or the kickable penalty, they were looking for.
"We backed ourselves on defence not to give away a penalty and then managed to keep them out," Mid Western skipper Matt Clutterbuck said.
 He was particularly pleased with the work ethic they'd shown when up against it in the second half.
"We had a good first half but went to sleep a little at the start of the second half and didn't wake up until they got a try. But then we dug deep and full credit to the boys, they showed a lot of passion today," he said.
Mid Western controlled the ball well in the first spell. The forwards had a slight edge on the Kamo pack, who were too often caught infringing around the ruck, gifting Munro scoring opportunities to lead 15-9 at the break.
The injection of Nick Collins into first five-eighth after the break paid off for the visitors and his combination with promising second five-eighth Mike Cook spurred Kamo into action.
The Kamo backs made life difficult for their Mid Western counterparts by rushing up to shut down Munro's options.
 
 The understrength Kamo pack were strong around the field but were dealt to at scrum time. Mid Western managed to get their rolling maul going on the odd occasion but  it was Kamo's pick and go that gained the most metres late on.
 The only try of the match came 10 minutes into the second spell. Collins fielded the ball in his own half
combining with No 8 Cam Goodhue to surge into Mid Western's 22m zone. Kamo recycled the ball several times  before finally finding an overlap on the right  for Whiria Meltzer to score.
The conversion by Cook scraped the underside of the crossbar for Kamo to trail 14-15 but minutes later Cook slotted another penalty to give his side the lead for the first time in the match.
Moving into the final quarter the tension was beginning to show. Munro narrowly missed a penalty before Cook fluffed his easiest kick of the match which was to prove expensive.
A flying cover tackle by winger Iwi Hauraki on Luke Muggeridge snuffed out Mid Western's best scoring opportunity  but soon after the home side were awarded their game breaking penalty when referee Boris Jurlina wasn't satisfied with some Kamo counter rucking.
 Kamo  thought they had deserved a win but they had played their best rugby of the season to date and now feel they are on the rise, acting captain Roy Griffin said after the match.
"We had some discipline problems in the first half in particular and we may need to have a look at that, but the pleasing thing for us was when we were on the go, we gained good territory - it was another step up from last week for us," he said.