Big win despite fumbles

Wairarapa-Bush muddled their way to a 38-11 win over Thames Valley in their NPC third division rugby match at a windswept Memorial Park in Masterton on Saturday.
The home team ran in six tries, some of them spectacular affairs, but probably bombed as many again through basic handling and passing errors, and a tendency to lose their composure as the goalline loomed.
At the same time it must be said that the opposition provided by Thames Valley was better than you would normally anticipate from a team sitting right at the wrong end of the competition table.
They had plenty of fire in their bellies in the opening 20 minutes and spent a good deal of that time in Wairarapa-Bush territory, their forwards often making good metres with the pick and go and the rolling maul, and their backs just as often exposing short-comings in the midfield defence.
So competitive were Thames Valley, in fact, that even though they had conceded four tries by the halftime break and were trailing 21-11, the chances of them securing a shock victory could not be dismissed.
The second spell though was pretty much all one-way traffic with Wairarapa-Bush calling the tune, not so much because they lifted their standard to any degree but because Thames Valley noticeably dropped theirs.
They did not show the same urgency in the forward exchanges, and when they did get quality ball the backs were too predictable in the way they utilised it.
It was their tight forwards who could take most of the plaudits for the Wairarapa-bush win.
Front rowers Dylan Higginson, Rob Foreman and Joe Harwood not only scrummaged effectively, but were all prominent in rampaging bursts in broken play situations. Indeed Harwood was pretty much the "go to man" when his side were struggling to get any momentum into their attacks, and he invariably got them on the front foot by shrugging off a couple of tacklers and taking another couple with him whenever he was in possession.
Foreman too was a hard man to stop with ball in hand, with one of his surging runs directly leading to a try while Higginson was typical Higginson, seldom taking the limelight but always being diligent in his support of the ball carrier and adding oomph to the attack when he did have the opportunity to really stretch his legs.
The two locks Tomasi Kedarabuka and Mike Robinson also had big games for Wairarapa-Bush.
Kedarabuka went into the game with a cloud hanging over him because of a shoulder problem, but you would never have known it the way in which he threw himself into the action. He was clearly the best lineout forward in the game, gave it everything in the mauls and, as usual, made a number of important tackles.
Robinson, as skipper, led from the front, shirking none of the hard graft in the tighter phases of the forward game and also showing out in the loose. He too was invaluable for his robust defensive work.
It was a mixed day for the Wairarapa-Bush loosies. Openside flanker Daimon Neal was superb with his close quarter tackling and speed to the ball on the ground, but he had a base case of the 'dropsies" in attacking play, two or three times spilling passes when tries were on.
Blindside flanker Sam Henderson and No.8 Sylvanus Iiro had their moments on attack and defence but, overall, probably did not get into the game as much as they would have liked.
It was a mixed day too for the Wairarapa-Bush backs. Generally when the three-quarters are responsible for all of the six tries scored you can say with confidence that the rearguard functioned well but, in reality, Saturday's effort was a long way short of what they are capable of producing.
Halfback James Bruce could, however, feel happy enough with his first half stint with a feature of his game being his constant harassing of his opposite number at scrum time, often with good results.
First-five Patrick Rimene pulled off some useful touch finders and was calm under pressure but some of his option taking was questionable and some of his passing equally so.
For second-five Nathan Couch it was his 50th game in the Wairarapa-Bush jersey, an honour richly deserved. He was typically assertive in everything he did but three or four missed tackles and a couple of rushed passes, when patience was required, marred his performance.
Centre Simanu Simanu was one of the more effective attackers in the Wairarapa-Bush backline , punching holes on occasions with his hard, straight running, but, like Couch, there were defensive errors not typical of him. He is though an integral part of this Wairarapa-Bush side so an injury which saw him leave the field in the second half has to be a worry with the semi-finals so tantalisingly close.
Wing Marika Kau marked his debut in the starting line-up with a hat-trick of tries and it was a pity that he and fellow winger Esava Teko, who scored twice, had only limited opportunities to strut their stuff. They clearly had the edge on their markers for speed and elusiveness and, to their credit, both went looking for work. Unfortunately for them however they were still unemployed for most of the game.
Of all the Wairarapa-Bush backs though it was fullback Bart Viguurs who made the most favourable impression. He starred in several darting runs on the counter attack and showed rapid acceleration when in the clear. He joined Simanu on the injury bench during the second spell and that too must be a worry with the key third division games just ahead.
Thames Valley had two hard working loose forwards in Hayden Cullen and Mark Aylor, a competent inside back combination in Danny Morrison and David Harrison and a strong running midfielder in Steven Hill.
Tries for Wairarapa-Bush, which led 21-11 at halftime, were scored by Kau (3),Teko (2) and Simanu .Patrick Rimene kicked four conversions. Wing Thomas Cole scored a try for Thames Valley and Harrison landed two penalties.
Meanwhile the Wairarapa-Bush colts won the B section of their Hurricanes tournament when they beat Poverty Bay 32-3 in Palmerston North.They will now go forward to play a promotion-relegation game against the bottom-placed team in the A section.
The Wairarapa-Bush B senior Bs had a 24-12 win over Horowhenua-Kapiti, the Wairarapa-Bush under-18s triumphed 55-5 and the Wairarapa-Bush under-16s lost by just 10-11 to Horowhenua-Kapiti in the main curtain-raiser at Memorial Park.