Consistency sees Coasters, Red Star through to final

Consistency was rewarded when East Coast and Masterton Red Star won through to the grand final of the Wairarapa-Bush premier division rugby competition at Memorial Park next weekend.
Their semi-final wins over Greytown and Martinborough respectively on Saturday came after they had comfortably claimed the first two places on the points table at the end of the two qualifying rounds, and shared the Chris Kapene Memorial Cup as joint first-round leaders in the process.
Their reaching the grand final is significant for other reasons as well.
East Coast won the premier division title for the very first time in their history last season and now get the opportunity to repeat the feat.
Masterton Red Star were not even part of the premier division grade in 2008, having to withdraw at the eleventh hour because of a shortage of players, and a year later are about to participate in the competition decider ... a remarkable turnaround in fortunes if ever there was one.
It was the accurate boot of first-five Byron Karaitiana which played the key role in Masterton Red Star's 25-19 semi-final victory over Martinborough at Memorial Park.
In a game which was largely spoiled as a spectacle by both sides constantly earning the ire of referee Tom Roseingrave for their misdemeanours, goal kicking was always going to be a vital factor and Karaitiana provided 20 of his team's points with five penalties, one conversion and a dropped goal.
Not only that, Karaitiana was also a constant pain in the butt for Martinborough, with his hefty punting from defensive situations, often gaining 40m to 50m with his clearances.
Martinborough, on the other hand, did not have the best of the days with their goal kicking, Greg Dennes landing three penalties but missing a couple from comfortable range as well.
The southerners - who conceded more penalties than Masterton Red Star - did, however, manage to conjure up a couple of tries, to wings Eli Telford and Keiran Te Whare, while Masterton Red Star touched down just the once, midfielder Heemi Tupaea doing the business in that respect.
The high penalty count meant any chance of the match developing into the expected free-flowing type of game basically went out the window and it quickly became a stop-start affair.
Masterton Red Star would, however, have been encouraged by the hard graft done in the tighter exchanges of the forward battle by front rowers Tim Hintz, Owen Riddell, and Nathan Haglund, and locks Tyrone McTavish and Jake Bubb.
They competed well with the feisty Martinborough pack with McTavish, in particular, making a big impression.
He was good value in the lineouts, strong on the burst and robust on defence.
Flanker Jared Hawkins was the standout in a Martinborough pack which played with their usual aggression in all facets of the game.
Hawkins had an enormous tackle count and was always in close support of the ball carrier in attacking situations. Fellow loosies Scott Gudsell and Peter Ireland also had big games for Martinborough while Adam Marshall and Jeremy Sargent worked away diligently in the tight.
Unfortunately the nature of the game meant neither backline had too many chances to show their attacking qualities.
As mentioned previously the influence of Byron Karaitiana at first-five was huge for Masterton Red Star and they also benefited from the soundness of Callum Buchanan at halfback and Greg Paku at fullback.
Martinborough had a couple of hard-nosed midfielders in Sam Walsh and Owen Coulson and Keiran Te Whare was a deceptive runner on the wing.
Goal kicking also played a crucial role in the East Coast v Greytown semi-final at Whareama with East Coast's Nick Olson missing just the one scoring opportunity in that regard and banging over four penalties and one conversion.
He also scored a try for a personal tally of 19 points, the other five coming from a try to Peter Gray.
All Greytown's points came from Senoa Isaac who kicked three penalties and also scored his team's sole try.
The battle for superiority up front was hard fought with honours coming out about even.
Lock James Balfour was a big asset for East Coast with his ability to take down clean lineout ball and there was no more punishing runner in broken play than hooker Willie Leota. His fellow front rowers Darren Walker and Tereina Rimene also impressed .
Lock Gareth van Dolen was a mainstay of the Greytown pack, along with prop Brett Rudman and No 8 Johnny Avatea.
In the backs Zeb Aporo and Sam Mitchell were always prominent for East Coast and Lawrence Matthews and Julian Cosgrove likewise for Greytown.
Greytown coach Stacey Grant rued the slow start made by his side, saying they had been forced to play catch up rugby because of it.
"We gave away a couple of tries and it was an uphill battle from then on," he said.
"We did get better as the game progressed but those early points cost us in the end."
East Coast coach John Pereira said he was never confident of victory "until the last few minutes" with the points gap never being great enough for the nerves to settle.
"It was a tough game and I was proud of the way the boys stuck at it," he said.
The premier division plate final next weekend will be fought out by Marist and Gladstone after they beat Pioneer and Carterton respectively on Saturday.
Marist edged out Pioneer 27-22 thanks to tries by Willie Killion, Phil Aporo, Nathan Couch and Rhys Severn with Aporo kicking one conversion and Couch one conversion and one penalty.
Gladstone had a decisive 38-3 win over Carterton.
Richard Puddy scored two of their tries with others going to Bevan Morland, Chris Bargh, Jason Kjestrup and Baden Stevenson. Kjestrup also kicked four conversions.
Upset wins were the order of the day in the senior reserves semi-finals with Eketahuna defeating Masterton Red Star and Carterton beating Pioneer.