Carterton crash out of contention

Defending champions Carterton were knocked out of contention for the 2007 Wairarapa-Bush senior first division rugby championship when they were on the end of a 37-3 walloping by Gladstone on Saturday.
All six first division sides were still in the reckoning for semi-final berths going into what was the final series of top six matches and joining Gladstone there next weekend will be Eketahuna, Marist and Pioneer.
Eketahuna, which pipped Marist 21-14 at Memorial Park on Saturday and grabbed the number one seeding as a result, will be at home to fourth seeds Gladstone in the semis while second seeds Marist will meet third seeds Pioneer at Memorial Park.
With a special trophy at stake to mark the Carterton district's 150th birthday celebrations and both teams desperate for the win which would make their semi-final places safe, everything pointed to the Gladstone v Carterton clash being a thriller.
But as it happened the scoreline was a one-sided affair with Carterton managing just the one penalty against Gladstone's five tries, two of which were converted. Throw in a couple of penalties as well and Gladstone were the clearly superior side.
Gladstone's performance was marked by the consistency of their play at both back and forward. They generally used the ample supply of supply of quality which came their way intelligently whereas Carterton struggled to get any continuity into their game.
Loosies Mike Spence and Steve Wilkinson starred in what was a hard-working Gladstone pack and Matt Easton was again one of their most impressive backs. He finished with a personal tally of 14 points.
Carterton would obviously have been disappointed to end their season on such a low note. They appeared to lack the intensity of Gladstone in most departments and struggled to get any real momentum into their attacking play.
Matt Easton, Mike Spence, Dave Drummond, Steve Wilkinson and Russell Thompson scored the tries for Gladstone and Easton landed two penalties and two conversions. Jono Hurley kicked a penalty for Carterton.
Eketahuna served notice that they have judged their championship campaign to a nicety when they scored their narrow win over Marist at Memorial Park.
With both teams already qualified for the semis and Marist guaranteed a home semi-final, the main interest here centred on whether Eketahuna could secure enough points to give them a home semi as well and they managed that with a solid all-round effort.
As the final score would suggest, however, there was little between the two sides, certainly little enough to suggest that if they meet again in the grand final neither would deserve to start favourite.
Hamish McKenzie, Kjestrup and Simanu Simanu were the try scorers for Eketahuna and Simanu kicked one penalty and conversion. Ben Couch and Joe Nuku scored tries for Marist and Patrick Rimene landed two conversions.
Pioneer sealed their semi-final berth with a somewhat flattering 28-14 win over Greytown-Tuhirangi at the park Sportsground.
It wasn't as if Pioneer didn't deserve their win for they always looked to have more attacking potential in their backs than Greytown-Tuhirangi but the combined side were unlucky to have one try disallowed and "murdered" at least two others through poor handling
The match provided an entertaining spectacle with both teams displaying urgency in the forward exchanges and being prepared to spread the ball wide whenever the opportunity arose.
Pioneer started the stronger of the two with in-form loosies Boof Carberry and Nathan Rolls starring in several bursting runs inside the first 20 minutes and both Jamie Smallman and Stu Waipuka looking every bit as dangerous with their aggressiveness in midfield.
The longer the first half progressed though the more Greytown-Tuhirangi came into the game with the main launching pad for their most potent attacks being young No.8 Nathan Iro, who was seldom grounded behind the advantage line. Halfback Mike Hollis was his usual lively self and Kingi Kaiwai was an elusive runner amongst the backs.
At halftime Pioneer led 16-7,a handy enough advantage but with Greytown-Tuhirangi giving every bit as good as they received not necessarily a winning one.
The second spell was pretty much a repeat of the first with both sides creating scoring chances and Pioneer showing just a little more polish in their finishing work than their opposition.
The individual brilliance of Smallman was evidenced when he split open the Greytown-Tuhirangi defence to score the first try of the half for the home team but the visitors replied soon after when speedy wing Mike Wilson picked up an interception and hared away from the cover defence to score near the posts.
At 23-14 to Pioneer it was still anybody's game and the scoreboard stayed that way right until the last seconds when Pioneer breached the Greytown-Tuhirangi game again to make victory safe.
Perhaps the highlight of the match was the high standard of play from loosies Carberry and the Rolls brothers from Pioneer and Iro from Greytown-Tuhirangi, all of whom must now be pressing hard for Wairarapa-Bush selection.
And also up front the experience in the tighter phases of players like Anton Kainuku and second half sub Dave Ewe for Pioneer and front rowers Brett Rudman, Stewart Weatherstone and Bruce McKenzie for Greytown-Tuhirangi was always obvious.
Smallman was unquestionably Pioneer's best back with Waipuka little behind him and Tom Harmon adding sting when he joined the fray in the second spell while Hollis, Kaiwai and Tosswill were the standouts in the Greytown-Tuhirangi rearguard.
Isaac Rolls, Jamie Smallman, Tommy Davidson and Te Whare scored the tries for Pioneer and Nathan Rolls kicked one conversion and two penalties. Nathan Iro and Mike Wilson scored tries for Greytown-Tuhirangi and they were both converted by Richard Tosswill.
The evenness of the senior second division competition was illustrated when both matches there produced surprise results, Puketoi downing leaders Martinborough 15-13 and East Coast beating second placed Masterton Red Star 20-12. Competition points there are: Martinborough 14, East Coast 10, Masterton Red Star 10 and Puketoi 5.