Western overwhelm a weakened Hikurangi

A hat-trick apiece to flying wingers Mateo Malupo and Ualosi Kailea helped the Western Sharks overrun Hikurangi 51-6 and claim the minor premiership at Farmlands Park on Saturday.
The match was close until half-time, with the home side leading by  10-6.
Coach Myles Ferris brought on his two Northland players Malupo and Luke Hamilton after the break and that proved to be the straw - or straws - that broke the camel's back.
The Sharks ran in seven second-half tries - many of them from long range - to win their first  minor premiership.
 Hamilton said the players had been boosted by the win.
"You don't want to jinx yourself but the boys have played well all year and and it's really coming together now, so with two weeks to go I think we're looking pretty good," he said.
"Hikurangi are well and truly under strength today so you've got to take this result with a grain of salt, but we've worked hard for this and we'll take it," he said.
The one-sided victory was a bitter pill to swallow for the Hikurangi coach, Stu Cook, and the large group of supporters that travelled to the game hoping to see Hikurangi win and secure a home semi-final.
"We let ourselves down in the second half with too many missed tackles and once they got the ball wide, well those guys can run the 100m in 10 seconds so you can't let them do that and hope to win," he said
Cook was disappointed that, unlike Ferris, Hikurangi hadn't had any of their Northland ITM Cup players available for the match. With absence and injury, he was missing 10 from the regular starting line-up for the match.
Ferris agreed with Cook that something needed to be done in the future about competition for provincial players between their club sides and Northland at the end of the season.
"I know in a lot of other unions their ITM Cup players will all be playing in their club rugby finals and while I was obviously grateful to get Mateo and Luke today - they made a huge difference - I'd rather focus today on what we did today, which was win the minor premiership," he said.
"What will be disappointing is if Hikurangi can't get their Northland players back for the semi-finals and the final, if they make it, because no team  wants to win against the second string. You want to test yourself against the best," Ferris concluded.
Hikurangi were certainly a shadow of the side who had swapped the competition lead with the Sharks half a dozen times throughout the regular season. There certainly was plenty of effort shown by players like Mike Paniora, Troy Raite, Aaron Wright and Eric Abraham, continuing to compete even though the tide had already turned in the match.
 Unfortunately for the red-and-blacks, they picked up a couple more injuries during the match and along with the dispiriting defeat, they will find it difficult to bounce back next week against Mid Northern at Hukerenui.
It was the Sharks day in Dargaville. The side lacked accuracy and discipline in the first half but came right  in the second half with first five-eighth Reece Hammon also beginning to grow in confidence and contribute more to the team at the business end of the season.
They will host the Auckland-Northland pre-season match at Farmlands Park on Wednesday and then follow that up with a tough semifinal against Hora Hora  next weekend.
Western Sharks 51 (U. Kailea 3, M. Malupo 3, N. Lutui, R. Hammon tries; Hammon 4 con. 1 pen.) Hikurangi 6 (N. White 2 pen.).