Champs find Rams no push-overs

Eketahuna got more than they bargained for despite beating Masterton Red Star by a healthy 57-7 in their Wairarapa-Bush senior first division rugby match at Memorial Park, Masterton on Saturday.
The defending champions led by 21-7 at halftime but that scoreline hardly did justice to a Masterton Red Star team which had actually looked the more dangerous of the two from an attacking perspective.
Several times during the course of that opening 40 minutes their backs stretched the Eketahuna defence with their hard, straight running and their only try, scored by winger Oka Lagolago, would be as spectacular an effort as we have seen at headquarters all season.
Lagolago received the ball in space about the half-way line and after rounding a couple of would-be tacklers he neatly swerved his way past a couple of others before sprinting away to score untouched.
One imagines coach Graeme Cheetham had plenty to say to his Eketahuna side at halftime. Sure, they had scored three tries and had a clear edge in both territory and possession, but too often they had failed to turn prime scoring chances into points on the board.
Hamish McKenzie had made a positive impact with his sniping runs at halfback and lock Josh Mackie had driven powerfully from lineouts and broken play but, apart from that, the visitors had struggled to get any fluency into their attacking play.
It was a very different Eketahuna in the second spell. The urgency which had been lacking in their forward effort, in particular, was back in truckloads with the result they spent most of the half deep in opposition territory.
And not only that, when tries were there to be scored they generally scored them, six in total.
Masterton Red Star, for their part, were typically gritty in their response but a couple of injuries to front row forwards obviously lessened their effectiveness in set piece play and meant the amount of quality ball attained for their backs dwindled away to practically nothing.
Props Brendan Walker and Angus McMillan provided most of the hard graft for Eketahuna up front, Mackie was clearly their main target at lineout time and there was some lively play in the loose from flanker Solly Alsop.
The tactical nous of halfback McKenzie was a huge plus for Eketahuna. He was quick to take advantage of any gaps in the Masterton Red Star defence around the fringes of the scrums, rucks and mauls and on the few occasions he put boot to ball it was with good purpose.
At first-five Darren Yates was a steady link and outside him Dan Hancock came into his own in the second half, invariably making it over the advantage line whenever possession came his way.
Again it was Dan Hape who emerged as the shining light in the Masterton Red Star backline. He played at first-five in the first half and one place further out in the second and took full advantage of any chance he had to test the Eketahuna defence. Even in limited spaces and with opposition players all around him he was usually able to make 10 to 15 metres before being grounded. A Wairarapa-Bush jersey can't be far away for him.
Wing Lagolago will always savour the memories of his wonderful try and Fiti Fousoe made a decent fist of fullback, running strongly on the counter attack and being solid on the tackle.
It was a tough day at the office for the Masterton Red Star forwards, but in prop Nathan Haglund, lock Peter Start and No.8 Russell Van Dieman they had three players who gave it everything they had.
Hamish McKenzie (2), Dan Hancock, Solly Alsop, Brendan Walker, Angus McMillan, M.Cox, Rob Foreman and Dave Smith scored tries for Eketahuna and Darren Yates kicked six conversions.Oka Lagolago scored a try for Masterton Red Star and it was converted by Marcus Henson.
Referee Dean Goodin also deserves a special mention for his contribution to what was a good spectacle. A number of club games this season have been dominated by the whistle but Goodin kept stoppages to a minimum with intelligent application of the advantage rule.
Greytown-Tuhirangi scored a 26-17 win over Pioneer in their match at the Park Sportsground in Masterton with loose forward Sylvanus Iro continuing on with the outstanding form he had shown for Wairarapa-Bush against Wellington just four days previously.He made several rampaging runs on attack and was just as assertive in his defensive approach.
In what was pretty much a forward orientated game others in the Gryetown-Tuhirangi eight to take the eye were front rowers Dylan Higginson, Bruce McKenzie and Dylan Higginson and Norm Henricksen made a positive impact when he came off the bench.
Directing play for the combined side with his usual astuteness was first-five Mark Childs, who was one of two Greytown-Tuhirangi players to land a dropped goal. Seanoa Isaac also managed that feat as well as scoring a try while Iro scored two tries and Ryan Hardman one.
Pioneer were never completely out of the game on the scoreboard and battled away well in the forwards with front rower Anton Kainuku using his wealth of experience to good effect.
Gladstone coach Dave Drummond was making no secret of his disappointment at his side's lack of competiveness in their 33-14 loss to Marist.
"We just didn't turn up to play???..it was as simple as that," Drummond said. "They (Marist) were on their game and we weren't."
The battle for forward supremacy was expected to be a close one but, as it was, Marist took control early on and maintained it through the course of the match. They outshone Gladstone in the set pieces and the quality ball attained there was generally put to good use by the backs.
The only Gladstone player to enhance his reputation was hard-working loose Rob Dick while Damon Neal and Whanau Samoa scored their tries and John Uys kicked two conversions.
Martinborough were kept honest in the forward exchanges by Puketoi but their outside backs had too much flair and pace and they romped home by 65-7.
Wing Ritchie McGregor relished the chance to show his attacking skills and he came up with a hat-trick of tries for Martinborough. Centre Stewart Pratt and fullback Ayden Lambert both scored two tries with others going to Tommy Te Kani, Warren Ireland, Ryan Renata and Peter Ireland.
Puketoi, who had defaulted to Carterton the previous Saturday because of a shortage of front row forwards, were again depleted but, typically, did their best to make a decent game of it.
For about the first time this season Carterton had almost a fully fit squad for their game with East Coast and they showed the benefits of it, winning by a comfortable 35-11.
The Coasters were competitive in most departments but whereas they struggled to finish off their attacking movements Carterton generally made the most of their scoring opportunities.
Halfback Sean Bicknell had a lively game for Carterton as did the loose forward trio of Damon Searle, Jason Vainu and Joe Harwood.
Front rower Logan ili scored two tries for Carterton with others going to Joe Harwood and Les Pethyridge.