Understrength Hora Hora notch gutsy win

It wasn't pretty but Hora Hora kept their playoff hopes alive in the  Southern Districts competition with a convincing 17-10 win over Old Boys.
They starved Old Boys of possession by controlling the forward exchanges and earning a mountain of turnovers. When Hora Hora went to their backs they also looked good, stretching Old Boys' defence and creating overlaps. They also made good ground - particularly in the second spell when the pressure was on - with some excellent tactical kicking.
Already struggling for numbers this season, Hora Hora were missing three of their regular starters with other commitments on Saturday, further impressing skipper Warren Dunn with the way they went about their task.
"We were just trying to survive out there today - with a few of the reserves helping us out - but when we get a few more players back, if we can play with the same kind of style as we did today, we're still in with a chance of making the semis," he said.
"We played some smarter rugby today especially with our kicking game, we hit the corners a lot and we haven't done that a lot this year and I think that showed in the result," he said.
Varying their game may have put Old Boys on the back foot, but Dunn said in the end they went back to their main weapon - driving the ball up in the forwards - and it paid off with three second-half tries sealing the win.
Old Boys showed good resolve in the first spell, disrupting several Hora Hora scoring opportunities, and actually led 3-0 at halftime against the run of play.
It was a typical rough and ready encounter between the two Whangarei rivals, with three dust-ups in the first spell. Marius Botha finally clamped down, sinbinning Old Boys' Trey Thompson and Hora Hora's Tai Heke after the third punch-up, ending the fisticuffs for the day.
Old Boys started the second spell on attack, but couldn't maintain it and finally Hora Hora got on the board. Hooker Robbie Murray scored the first of his two tries midway through the spell, with help from lock Mark Bennett, after Old Boys finally lost  composure defending their line.
Prop Jason Paerangi crashed over for the second after a long period of pressure on the Old Boys goal-line to take the score to 12-3, before Murray scored again from a rolling maul with less than five to go to secure the win.
To Old Boys' credit, they gave their supporters a taste of what they are capable of by keeping the ball in hand from the re-start, leading to a converted try by Connor Matson, which earned them a bonus point as they narrowed the gap to 17-10.
An obviously frustrated Old Boys skipper Matt Harrison said the better side had won on the day.
"We wanted to continue our good home form this year and we had a good build-up this week, but that wasn't the performance we were after," he said.
Old Boys were guilty of letting Hora Hora control the game - perhaps waiting for them to tire - and that never happened.
"They worked harder at the contact area than we did, they were lower and a bit more physical and we didn't match them," Harrison concluded.