Rugby: Kamo party spoiled

A powerful performance by Mid Northern put a dampener on Kamo's jubilee party, with a 10-34 defeat not the result most of the big crowd were hoping for.

"We didn't really fire up as usual and they were far too good for us on the day," Kamo coach John Miller admitted.

The experience of Mid Northern's David Holwell directing the backs and Jason Hammond driving the forwards, combined with a hungry team performance was enough to knock the competition's form side over on their big weekend.

It was just the result Mid Northern were hoping for and put their early season inconsistency behind them.

"We're building every week and it's really exciting to be a part of it," Mid Northern's Hamish McCarroll said.

McCarroll said it had taken a few strong words from the likes of Holwell and Hamond after surprise losses at home to get through what playing for Mid Northern meant.

"The young guys know now that it's more than just about turning up and pulling a jersey on and playing some footy and they've really responded in the last couple of weeks," he said.

Miller was mindful the Kamo team hadn't quite done their part to help in the jubilee celebrations but he was hopeful that after five straight victories, the club faithful wouldn't be too disappointed.

"Although we weren't at our best against Mid Northern, we aren't too far away from where we want to be and the boys will take something away from the game and hopefully we'll be better for it," he said. "It was a memorable weekend anyway with a great formal function on Friday and hundreds of people turned out for the junior club day," he said.

In other matches, Wellsford were too strong for Marist at Centennial Park, beating them 34-10 to maintain their competition lead in some style.

Otamatea finally broke their duck in the competition with a morale-boosting 30-23 win over the Western Sharks in Dargaville.

The Hawks have been threatening a win for some time and found an injury-hit Sharks' side ripe for the picking.

Mid Western returned to their winning ways with a 17-7 win over Hora Hora.

The final match of the round was another cliff-hanger, with Old Boys snatching the narrowest of wins over Hikurangi 27-26.