Competition points to to count in final round

The Wairarapa-Bush Rugby Union's council of clubs has confirmed that preliminary round competition points will be carried through to the main championship round of the premier division inter-club series.
This means that Pioneer have a head start in the battle for the four semi-final spots a little later in the season. They won the Moose Kapene Cup and $1000 for ending the preliminary round on 33pts, one more than Marist, Carterton and Eketahuna.
Just a further point back on 31 were Gladstone and making up the top six for the main championship were Greytown-Tuhirangi on 26.
For Greytown-Tuhirangi the onus is to make up lost ground early in the piece, and victory over Pioneer at the Park Sportsground in Masterton tomorrow would be an ideal start in that regard. These two sides met just last weekend at Pirinoa with Pioneer scoring three first half tries to lead 17-0 at halftime, and staving off a determined Greytown-Tuhirangi second half effort to win 17-7.
The message for Greytown-Tuhirangi from that match was that if you allow the Pioneer backs room to utilise their attacking skills they have the potential to cut you to pieces. Old hands Tipi Rimene and Richard Carroll called the shots from halfback and first-five respectively, and it was the very much in-form Tommy Harmon on the wing who took the most stopping.
For Harmon, in particular, each game is of the utmost importance now, as the withdrawl of Marika Kau from the Wairarapa-Bush squad means that he has suddenly become a leading contender for a wing berth in this season's NPC first division line-up. By demonstrating he can come up trumps week after week he will make it difficult for the selectors to overlook him.
The Greytown-Tuhirangi tactics tomorrow seem certain to revolve around forward dominance, something that was expected from them last weekend but never really eventuated. Perhaps they took the under-rated, but hard-working Pioneer eight a little bit lightly on that occasion, and you can certainly anticipate a stronger first 40 miniutes from them on this occasion.
The fact that Pioneer are being allowed to play all their home games at the Park Sportsground ? where there is no gate charge ? rather than at Memorial Park, doesn't help the Greytown-Tuhirangi cause though as the environment there is somewhat different than anywhere else, and Pioneer tend to thrive there.
But be that as it may, a close tense encounter is in prospect with the result likely to be in doubt right up until the final whistle.
Defending champions Eketahuna take on Gladstone at Eketahuna and this should be an enthralling battle too. It would be fair to say that Eketahuna are looking somewhat more vulnerable this season than they have for a long while, but at the same time they still have the capacity to beat any other premier division side.
It was their forwards who paved the way for a comfortable enough win over Gladstone in their preliminary round match, but don't expect them to adopt similar tactics here.
In Hamish McKenzie, Simanu Simanu and Joji Tamani they have three of the best attacking backs in the competition and one suspects they will play a big part in the outcome of tomorrow's game.
Gladstone, under the guidance of their experienced "brains trust" of Steve Thompson and Neil Kjestrup, made solid progress through the preliminary round and has good reason to fancy their chances of claiming Eketahuna's scalp. They have a handy mix of talent through their backs and forwards and a win to them would certainly be no surprise.
Marist have been the big improvers in recent weeks and will start favourites to beat Carterton at Carterton, but here too there is likely to be so little between the two sides that a Carterton win would raise few eyebrows. For Carterton to succeed they will have to take control up front and when you consider their pack contains players of the calibre of Joe Harwood, Tomasi Kedarabuka, Langi Peters and Andy Compain that possibility can't be dismissed.
Marist, on the other hand, will see the attacking talents of backs like Patrick Rimene, Nathan Couch, Phil Aporo and Lawrence Matthews as the recipe for victory. The mercurial Couch was sidelined last weekend because he had not received a clearance from the club he had played for in the United States but is expected to be on deck tomorrow.
PREMIER B GRADE
The bottom four teams from the preliminary round of the premier division club series now make up the premier B grade, which means in effect they are all guaranteed semi-final spots and that games between now and then are basically just for seedings. Tomorrow sees Masterton Red Star and Puketoi playing at Memorial Park and Martinborough and East Coast meeting at Martinborough.