Woodman try keeps Hora Hora in race for play-offs

Troy Woodman's return to club rugby on Saturday was heralded by a try that eventually earned four points for Hora Hora in their Round 14 clash with Kamo at Hora Hora Park.
In a match where both forward packs ground each other into the mud, and the backs struggled to make an impact, Hora Hora's only Northland representative finished off a well worked try that gave them a satisfying 5-0 win.
The win maintains the Whangarei club's race for the play-offs but extinguished Kamo's faint hopes of reaching the top four.
To keep a talented side like Kamo scoreless, despite the slippery conditions, underlined Hora Hora's commitment. Skipper Warren Dunn said it showed how hard his players worked during the match.
"I think we've got to put the win down to our defence, a day like today makes playing pretty difficult but I'd have to say that we wanted to win more, because of the way we defended," he said.
"It's hard to attack when you're on the back foot but we did what we could and came away with a pretty good try, so we'll take the win."
The home side didn't have it all their own way. Their pack was constantly under pressure from Kamo's forwards - with their Northland players leading the way - but Kamo's backline was missing. Mike Cook (injured) Whirtia Meltzer (family reasons) and Iwi Hauraki (injury) and they rarely caused the experienced Hora Hora backs problems.
Hora Hora had to fight for their share of possession up front. Faced with two imposing locks in Steve Baker and Roy Griffin, the Hora Hora lineout started poorly but eventually they steadied and in the end, Mark Bennett and Matt Black were stealing more ball than their opponents.
"I was quite stoked with the boys the way we went in the lineouts because we really got dominated in the scrums and if we weren't able to compete in the lineouts, we would really have struggled for ball," Dunn said.
The scrum was in trouble at the end of the first quarter and never recovered, with Kamo marching them backwards at an ever increasing pace.
No8 Eb  Nesbitt and halfback Logan Wendt were forced to adapt quickly and the try in the 55th minute came from such a setpiece. Five metres in from the left touch line, the scrum went chugging backward as a retreating Wendt fired a great pass to set the backline free. Dunn and Luke Voss mesmerised the Kamo defenders by cutting inside before switching the ball outside again to find fullback Aaron Baigent, who floated a long pass to Woodman to dot down in the opposite
corner.
The Northland winger's return gives the Hora Hora backline extra teeth, but it was the reshuffled combination between Dave McDonald at first five-eighth, Luke Voss in the 12 jumper and Dunn at centre that gave the backline their advantage throughout the game.
"Ever since we changed things around things have been clicking so we're sticking with that and we hope it'll take us through to the finals," Dunn said.
Although Kamo had a tremendous amount of ball, they were unable to provide the finishing flourish. They were unlucky not to be awarded a try when they mauled the ball over the Hora Hora line but neither the referee nor touch judge could see the ball grounded.
But Kamo were outplayed. They failed to come up with a valid plan B, after Hora Hora matched them at the breakdown. Their backs kicked too often and generally lost the kicking duels with the Baigent brothers Aaron and Leon.
Hora Hora are guaranteed a rare bonus point next round - they have the bye- and then have to earn points against two top-four teams,  Mid Northern and Hikurangi, before a final round clash against Marist, if they want to make the play-offs.