RUGBY - Mid Northern trounce Wellsford minus Fetu

One minute Fetu Vainikolo was the man who could do anything, the next he goes missing.
Now his Wellsford teammates have found out what life is going to be like without their try-scoring wonder-boy after he limped from the field early in a top-of-the-table Northland-wide premier club rugby clash against Mid Northern on Saturday.
Wellsford were thrashed 42-10 by Mid Northern and are now circling the wagons for the business end of the competition where they will be forced to compete without a clutch of well-performed Northland squad members.
Vainikolo and five more of his Wellsford clubmates are now cloistered with the rest of the Northland representative squad and will probably take no further part in club matches.
So the battle to try to add the championship title to what has been an outstanding club campaign to date has suddenly got very intriguing for the Wellsford side.
If Saturday's performance against Mid Northern is any indication, the southern most premier club in the province will struggle to stay in the hunt.
Mid Northern, thanks mainly to the tactical kicking skills of David Howell and Brad Miller and some fierce forward charges led by lock Vula Maimuri, hammered Wellsford fore and aft, scoring six tries to two to keep their hopes of hosting a semifinal this season alive.
It was an important psychological blow for Mid Northern too.
But while their performance was a strong signal ahead of the sudden-death games in two weeks' time, Mid Northern still have some work to do to try to keep their semifinal hosting rights.
Hot on their heels are defending champions Hikurangi, who will still be a significant force despite losing four senior players to Northland duty next weekend.
The poignant fact for Hikurangi, though, is that they will keep tighthead prop Gary Whippy, who was one of their stars from a 37-15 win over Marist on Saturday.
Whippy, who has been overlooked by the Northland selectors this season, was in commanding form on Saturday, able to give the Hikurangi side a definitive edge at scrum time even though he was propping against Tony Coughlan, the incumbent Northland loose head prop.
So heading into the final qualifying round of games before the semifinals, Hikurangi and Mid Northern are locked on the same championship points, and Mid Northern are holding down second place on points differential only.
It is going to be a tight race to the finish line, though, because not far off the pace is the other top-four contender, Waipu, who are probably going to be the best-placed team in the semifinals in terms of personnel.
Waipu whipped Hora Hora 57-7 on Saturday and will only lose two players to Northland duty, lock and captain Brad Taylor and prop Bronson Murray.
In the battle of the also-rans, Kamo beat the Western Sharks 15-7, thanks mainly to a double try-scoring performance from promising Kamo winger Hunia Kingi.
Moerewa had the bye.