Champs eye four in a row

Eketahuna have a fourth successive Wairarapa-Bush premier division rugby title in their sights after their 30-13 thumping of Gladstone in their semi-final match played at Memorial Park, Masterton on Saturday.
Squaring off against them in the grand final next weekend will be Carterton, whose semi-final encounter with Pioneer at Carterton was a much closer affair, Carterton scraping home 13-10.
It was top seeds Gladstone who made the early running in the game transferred from their home base to Memorial Park because of the better ground conditions there.
With their forwards hitting the rucks and mauls with more intensity than their opposition, and their backs moving onto the ball at speed and creating overlaps at will they raced out to a 10-0 lead, an advantage which could have doubled but for another couple of prime scoring chances being wasted through the vital last pass not being made or being spilled.
To Eketahuna's credit though they did not panic at this initial onslaught. Under the inspirational leadership of captain Steve Olds and player-coach David Smith, their response was to adopt a game plan which relied almost entirely on their forwards not only dampening the fire in the Gladstone pack but quelling it altogether, and it worked to perfection.
The more the first half progressed the more dominant the Eketahuna forwards became with nothing impressing greater than their unity, both in the set pieces and broken play.
In the scrum, in particular, it became pretty much one-way traffic, with Eketahuna often having their Gladstone counterparts on the back pedal at a great rate of knots and so effective did Eketahuna become at the rolling maul that Gladstone's dangerous loose forwards were forced to spend most of their time assisting their tighties in trying to slow their momentum there.
By halftime then Eketahuna had not only made up their lost ground on the scoreboard, but had gone out to 20-13 lead, and so dominant up front had they become that the possibility of a Gladstone comeback seemed slight, to say the least.
The second spell was pretty much a repeat of the last 30 minutes of the first, with Eketahuna continuing to call the tune in the forward exchanges to such an extent that Gladstone had little quality ball to play with. And even when they did have usable possession at their command they all too often hurried their passes with the result that the ball was grounded before it had gone through more than a couple of hands.
Conversely patience was a major strength of Eketahuna's play with the pack ensuring that the passage of the ball to halfback Hamish McKenzie was well protected and McKenzie himself generally ensuring that it was utilised in a manner which kept his forwards on the front foot.
Considering the clear advantage they had in both territory and possession, it was hardly surprising then that all 10 of the points recorded in the second half were registered by Eketahuna.
And how appropriate it was too that it should be captain fantastic Olds who scored the two tries concerned as in a pack in which there were no shirkers he was clearly the standout. He made several rampaging runs through the course of the game and was just as assertive in his defence.
Olds also showed shrewd tactical sense by often engaging in prolonged discussions with referee Andrew Stringer whenever his players needed a breather!
Smith and Luke Mahoney were only slightly less effective than Olds in the looser phases of the forward battle and when it came to the tighter exchanges the likes of Brendan Walker, Angus McMillan, Matthew Cox, Peter Bond and Josh Mackey were top value in every sense of the words.
The soundness of McKenzie at halfback was a definite plus for Eketahuna and wing Joji Tamani and fullback Simanu Simanu were other backs to shine.
Tamani didn't have too many attacking opportunities but used his pace to score a try and was always looking for work while Simanu was a constant threat on the counter attack and impressed with the power and accuracy of his kicking, both for territory and for goal.
Gladstone must still be wondering what hit them after that blazing start to the game.They simply had no answer to Eketahuna when the latter closed ranks and chose to make it a forward slog.
Their best players were flankers Steve Wilkinson and Sam Henderson, lock Andrew McLean and first-five Ngatai Walker but as a team they were simply outgunned on the day.
Steve Olds (2), Joji Tamani and Hamish McKenzie scored tries for Eketahuna and Simanu Simanu kicked two penalties and two conversions. Steve Wilkinson scored a try for Gladstone and Ngatai Walker kicked two penalties and one conversion.
Carterton coach Steve Hurley wasn't waxing lyrical after his side's 13-10 victory over Pioneer, admitting it was the expected hard-fought contest with Carterton getting their noses in front in the first half and holding off a determined Pioneer fightback.
"It was the sort of game where you treat a win as a win, no matter how you get there," he said. "We knew they (Pioneer) would never give up, and they didn't. It could have gone either way in the end."
Carterton had the edge in both territory and possession in the first half, but Pioneer lifted their effort in the second spell with their forwards ensuring that the highly-rated Carterton pack didn't have everything their own way.
Skipper Joe Harwood had a big game for Carterton up front, making several surging runs with ball in hand. No.8 Mike Wakefield also impressed with his diligence on both attack and defence and there was a lot to admire about the lineout play of Fijians Langi Peters and Tomasi Kedarabuka, both of whom also shone in broken play situations.
The pick of a Carterton backline, which generally complemented their forwards well, were midfielders Lance Stevenson and James Matthews.
Nathan Rolls was typically industrious in a Pioneer pack which lacked nothing on the score on enthusiasm and Russell Thompson was the standout in the backs.
Tomasi Kedarabuka and Jono Hurley scored tries for Carterton and Hurley also kicked a penalty goal. Richard Carroll and Joe Papaali scored tries for Pioneer.
The premier B semi-finals went according to the form book with East Coast beating Puketoi 36-5 and Martinborough edging out Masterton Red Star 10-5.