Bonus points will decide last four

Bonus points seem certain to play a key part in which four teams make the semi-finals in this season's Wairarapa-Bush premier division rugby competition.
So even are the six participating teams that picking up a bonus point for scoring four or more tries and/or finishing within seven points of the winning team could mean the difference between making the top four and being consigned to the scrap heap.
Interestingly enough it has been the two teams currently at the bottom of the competition table, Marist and Greytown-Tuhirangi, who have managed the most bonus points so far in 2006.
They have both boosted their totals in that manner by seven while the other four sides, Gladstone, Carterton, Pioneer and Eketahuna, have all managed five bonus points.
It is Gladstone though who leads the competition itself. Thay have 39pts, followed by Carterton, Pioneer and Eketahuna on 37, Marist on 33 and Greytown-Tuhirangi on 31.
With that in mind there is no question that the most important game tomorrow has to be that between Greytown-Tuhirangi and Marist at Pirinoa as a Marist win would make a semi-final spot for the combined side extremely unlikely.,
Whether that will happen will largely depend on the Marist forwards who were strangely subdued in the second half of their game against Pioneer last weekend and who will need to lift their effort several notches to match a Greytown-Tuhirangi pack which, on their day, is about as good as any in the premier division series.
For their part Greytown-Tuhirangi will be well aware of the need to dominant up front as Marist have more scoring potential in the backs than they do.Consequently the less quality ball they attain the less the chances of them being able to utilise that potential.
The forward battle also promises to provide the key to victory in the Eketahuna v Carterton game at Eketahuna. The home side might have only managed the three points against Greytown-Tuhirangi last weekend but it was enough for a win.They certainly don't have as many so-called "name" players as Carterton in their pack but their forwards have shown the ability to rise to the occasion in the past, and with their home crowd urging them on they are sure to give their Carterton counterparts a decent run for their money..
In the backs Eketahuna have the experience of halfback Hamish McKenzie and midfielder Simanu Simanu to call on. No doubt Carterton will well remember the last meeting between the two when McKenzie's playmaking skills were the biggest influence in a narrow Eketahuna win and they will be looking to their loosies to place greater pressure on him tomorrow.
Consolidating their competition lead will be foremost on the Gladstone minds when they play Pioneer at Gladstone. Here too the battle for forward supremacy is sure to play a huge part in the end result and Pioneer will have taken confidence from the way their pack, despite the absence of the mercurial Nathan Rolls, took it to Marist in the last 40 minutes of last weekend's Memorial Park encounter
They will need every bit of that resolve tomorrow against a Gladstone pack which has ball-winning attributes in all departments.
COLTS SQUAD
Wairarapa-Bush colts coaches Mark Rutene and Graeme Cheetham have named a squad of players to attend a pre-season training match at Memorial Park next Wednesday, starting at 6.30pm.The squad is:-
Eruera Henare, Mark Matiaha, Lance Graves, Jacob Ross, Tony Manesa, Thomas Rimene, Richard Puddy, Keith Murray, William Clinton-Baker, Rangi Wolland, Josh Mackey, Jared Hawkins, Joe Feast, Patrick Cassidy, Rueben Daysh, Matthew Lotz, Anthony Balks, Luke McKenna, Mike Hollis, Jason Scott, Quintin Larkin, Jono Hurley, Ben Hurley, Kane Oliver, Nick Olson, James Ross, Thomas Te Kani, Dane Hooper, Jackson Matthews,