Character gets East Coast home

The celebrations which followed East Coast's gripping 18-15 win over Marist in the grand final of the Wairarapa-Bush senior first division rugby championship on Saturday said it all.
Players, management and supporters who had been on tenterhooks for most of a game which saw their side trail by 10-3 at halftime and 15-3 early in the second spell let their emotions run riot, and why not.
To go from last to first in the space of one season is an effort of truly fairytale proportions, and a huge credit to new coaches John Pereira and Ritchie Robertson and a group of players who bought into their philosophy of "train as hard as you play".
There were whoops of joy, high fives, hugs and kisses when referee Andrew Stringer sounded the final whistle just a couple of minutes after Nick Olson had kicked the penalty goal which signalled East Coast were about to win the union's premier club title for the very first time in their 55-year history.
Twice before in 1996 and 1999 they had made it to the final but on each of those occasions they had fallen at the last hurdle.
Not this time, however, although when the socially-induced headaches of the East Coast fan club subside and that could take a few days yet they will reflect on a game which should have been theirs for the taking long before it was actually was.
They "bombed" at least three and probably four certain first half tries through shoddy handling in the outside backs, a situation which would often put the offending team off their stride.
Happily for East Coast though their team was made of sterner stuff and, in the end, their character and resolve got them home, albeit in circumstances far more dramatic than needed to be the case.
Twelve months earlier few, if any, would have dared dream that such a success was even the remotest of possibilities.
It must seem a long time ago now but the 2007 season saw East Coast ranked as the second lowest first division team in Wairarapa-Bush, and with the lowest, Masterton Red Star, withdrawing from this year's competition because of a shortage of players, East Coast actually started 2008 at the very bottom of the rankings.
To go from last to first in the space of one season is an effort of truly fairytale proportions, and a huge credit to new coaches John Pereira and Ritchie Robertson and a group of players who bought into their philosophy of "train as hard as you play".
Not that it was all beer and skittles for East Coast this season either. Making the top four of the Kapene Cup competition was certainly an improvement but going into the quarter-finals of the championship proper they were seeded sixth of the eight survivors, one place below Marist.
A deserved win over Pioneer in the quarters then gave East Coast the chance of a home semi-final against Martinborough and victory there took them into the big one against a Marist side who had also belied their seeding by beating Greytown in the quarters and defending champions Gladstone in the semis.
Saturday's match will not be remembered as one of the most memorable grand finals in terms of the standard of rugby produced.
There were too many wasted scoring chances for that, Marist not faring as badly as East Coast in that regard but still failing to capitalise at least a couple of times on situations where the opposition defence was, to all intents and purposes, stretched beyond breaking point.
In their case too it was simple passing and handling mistakes which cost them, mistakes which should never have happened in conditions which were remarkably good considering the recent spell of inclement weather.
The intensity of the forward battle was, however, everything you would expect it to be in a game of this importance and while it was much pretty much even-stevens for most of the game the East Coast pack finished the stronger of the two, and that was to play a big part in the end result.
At the stage when they trailed by 12 points on the scoreboard it was patently obvious that for East Coast to recover the lost ground their forwards would need to take control, and to their credit they were able to find the extra sting necessary for that to happen.
They dominated possession in the last 10 minutes and that was where the match was won and lost.
Outstanding for East Coast up front were locks James Balfour and Joe Feast, both of whom took some good lineout ball and were always close to the action in all other aspects of the forward game as well.
In fact, Feast's tackle rate would have been one of the highest of any of the players on display.
The late withdrawal through injury of inspirational skipper, hooker Deon Mitchell, meant East Coast was without one of their best scrummagers and maulers but players like Darren Walker, who took over the captaincy and led by example, and Chris Starling stepped up to the plate in those departments.
And TK Karaitiana was a robust performer at No.8, making good ground whenever he had the ball and showing urgency and aggressiveness on the tackle.
Collectively the East Coast backs have had better days.
Had their team lost they would have been haunted by the basic errors which cost them dearly when tries were in the offing but, happily for them, victory in a grand final means reflection on such matters is usually fleeting at best.
Individually though there were some fine moments, none more so than the darting ghost-like run of diminutive winger Luke Shanks which produced a wonderful second half try.
He went 30m and while confronted by probably five defenders en route to the goalline wasn't touched by one of them.
It was an effort which kept Shanks on the field as coach Robertson admitted afterwards that 30secs previously he had decided to substitute him with another promising youngster in Richard Cameron.
"I thought I'd better leave him on after that," Robertson quipped.
Cameron did get his chance off the reserve bench a little later, however, and actually set up a try when he pressured a Marist defender into dropping a high
ball and allowing East Coast to mount what proved to be an unstoppable surge, ending in a try for Feast.
Second-five Te Maika Mason would have made more line breaks than any other back and his hefty punting often released pressure on East Coast and if fullback Nick Olson wasn't his usual dangerous self in general play he showed excellent temperament in kicking the conversion which drew the Coasters level at 15-15 and then the penalty which took them into the all important lead.
Marist, for their part, must have been fancying their chances of victory going into the last quarter of the game.
Their forwards were holding their own and with first-five Patrick Rimene showing superb judgement with his tactical kicking the odds off them staving off any East Coast revival had to be good.
But in those final stanzas their forwards noticeably failed to respond when their East Coast counterparts upped the ante and they also changed their tactics, looking to run the ball out of their own territory rather than kick, often with dire consequences.
Loose forwards Joe Nuku and Ben Couch were two of the more diligent workers in the Marist pack, both running powerfully with ball in hand and getting through a power of work in close quarter defence.
Hooker Kyle Karaitiana had his usual busy game and veteran prop Lee Paku shirked nothing in the tight.
Rimene was undoubtedly the most influential back on the paddock, regularly finding open spaces with his kicks and showing commendable coolness under pressure.
Outside him Phil Aporo was seldom halted by one tackler whenever he managed to work up a full head of steam and while wing Jareth Fox didn't get much ball in hand he did impress with his keen chasing of Rimene kicks.
Luke Shanks and Joe Feast scored tries for East Coast while Nick Olson kicked one penalty and one conversion and Russell Farrell one penalty.
Ben Couch and Patrick Rimene scored tries for Marist and Rimene also kicked one penalty and one conversion.
Plate final
The senior first division plate final between Carterton and Greytown was a closely-contested affair with Carterton winning 23-21 but only after Greytown kicker Richard Tosswill twice had the mortification of seeing penalty attempts hit the uprights and bounce away.
Territorially too Greytown had the edge but a tendency to give penalties away in strong attacking positions too often allowed Carterton to relieve pressure.
Locks Brodie Duffin and Tomasi Kedrabuka and loosies Paddy Cassidy and Mike Wakefield all had strong games for Carterton up front while first-five Neil Rodger and fullback Keiran Blake were the pick of the backs.
Front rowers Moi Liumahetau and Deaniel Gilmour were prominent in the Greytown pack along with flanker Brett Aitken and No.8 Johnny Avatea and there was some penetrating running in the backs from the Issac brothers, Senoa and Tavita.
Joe Harwood and Charlie Walker-Blair scored tries for Carterton with Neil Rodger kicking two penalties and two conversions and Brock Price kicking one penalty. Lawrence Matthews and Julian Cosgrove were the Greytown try scorers and Richard Tosswill kicked three penalties and a conversion.
The senior thirds division final between Pioneer and Masterton Red Star attracted a large and vocal crowd of spectators and they were kept well entertained in a match won by Pioneer 17-8. They got away to a flying start with a Dave Kerehi penalty and an excellent Charloie Brown try and while Masterton Red Star never threw in the towel Pioneer always looked to have the edge, especially in the outside backs.
The Presidents grade senior thirds final saw Carterton win their second trophy of the day, beating Marist 17-6, while the JAB finals produced a 18-7 win to Masterton Red Star over Marist in the under-11 grade and a 38-12 win to Marist over Greytown in the under-13 grade.