Brawl ends Eketahuna match

Eketahuna and Stokes Valley's premier division women's rugby match on Saturday was called off five minutes before fulltime when a brawl broke out involving several players.
Eketahuna midfield back Maia Tuia-Davidson and a Stokes Valley player were sent from the field for dissent after they were originally yellow-carded.
Eketahuna won the match 32-12.
Eketahuna coach Sid Tatana said the ending was "very unfortunate" but lauded his side for the manner in which they responded to the challenge offered by a Stokes Valley squad which was intent on dominating the forward exchanges and on giving the home team a decent run for their money in the backs.
"We always knew it would be a tough game and we were up for it," Tatana said.
"They were always going to try and soften us up but we backed ourselves to finish stronger than them and that's the way it worked out."
Eketahuna led 10-7 at the end of a first half which in which territory and possession were evenly shared. They opened up a handy lead in the second spell and Stokes Valley eventually started to tire.
Tatana was pleased with the manner in which his forwards stuck to their task
"All of them had top games, their commitment was outstanding," he said.
The Eketahuna backs, who have been used to running rings around their opposition in 2011, found themselves up against a more structured defence and the more the game progressed the more their attacking skills became apparent.
Eketahuna's win continued their unbeaten record in the Victoria Tavern Trophy competition and they will go into this Saturday's semifinals as top seeds.
Who they will play has yet to be confirmed - it could be Stokes Valley again - but the match will be played at Eketahuna.
Whether Eketahuna will be at full strength depends on the sentence handed out Tua-Davidson for being red-carded.
Tatana hopes she will not be stood down.
"Obviously we'd like to think she can play because you want both teams to have everybody on deck for a semi," Tatana said.