East Coast and Eke crowned

East Coast and Eketahuna won the feature Wairarapa-Bush premier division rugby matches played at Memorial Park, Masterton, on Saturday but both had to fight tooth and tail for their narrow winning margins.
Up against a brave Pioneer side, East Coast looked in huge trouble when they found themselves trailing 21-12 at halftime but showed just why they went through the Kapene Cup competition unbeaten by fighting back for a deserved 31-26 victory.
A key period in the game came midway through the second half when Pioneer had a player sin-binned and East Coast piled on 14 points in the 10 minutes their opposition were one short, taking a 26-21 advantage at that stage.
Pioneer struck back with an unconverted try to draw level at 26-26 but then, with just one minute of play remaining, East Coast skipper Sam Mitchell capitalised on a powerful burst by winger Dan Porter to score under the posts. Porter kicked the conversion and East Coast were home at 33-26.
Eketahuna and Gladstone also had a battle royal, with Eketahuna sneaking out to a 13-10 lead at halftime, Gladstone making the most of a period of ascendancy in the second spell to tie the scores at 16-16 and then Eketahuna coming up with what was to be the last scoring action of the game with an unconverted try to wing Mata Mataitini 10 minutes from fulltime. Eketahuna won 21-16.
East Coast seemed shocked by the ferocity of the Pioneer effort through most of the first half of the late game on the No l ground.
Pre-match speculation was East Coast were likely to have the edge up front but, as it happened, the Pioneer forwards had the sting in their tail right from the start and often had the Coasters on the back foot through the excellence of their support play in the many short passing rushes they launched inside that first 40 minutes.
No 8 Lee Ewe split the East Coast defence wide open with a searching run practically from the kick off and was at the head of most of Pioneer's most potent attacking forays and hooker Aki Henare-Kuru, prop Eruere Henare and flanker Mike Harmon were generally right on his shoulder.There was some heady play, too, from the Pioneer backs, with halfback Victor Thompson and first-five Tipi Haira calling the shots confidently and centre Damien Paku and fullback Joe Papalii seldom failing to get themselves over the advantage line.
East Coast, on the other hand, seemed a little subdued at both back and forward through most of that first half and when they did get the chance to show their usual attacking flair there was a tendency for wrong options to be taken just as the goal-line beckoned.
Whatever East Coast coach Mark Donaldson said to his troops at the halftime break, however, seemed to work the oracle, with the pack, especially, lifting the ante and competing well for possession in every avenue of the forward game.
Front rowers Walter Williams and Tereina McLean were true grafters in the tight, Karim Brown and Joe Feast took down some good lineout ball and both Joe Feast and Kane Nooroa became prominent in the loose.
There was a sharp improvement, too, in the efficiency of the East Coast backs. Fullback Nick Olson was a constant menace with his rapid acceleration and elusiveness, midfielders Sam Mitchell and Jeese McGilvary ran powerfully and Dan Porter, who was listed on the wing but often moved into second-five when his team was on defence, impressed with the length of his clearing kicks.
Pioneer didn't quite have the same authority about their performance in the second half but that was due more to East Coast enhancing their effort than any slackening on their own part. As mentioned previously they will look back on the sin binning of prop Henare with some misgivings as East Coast's points haul while he was off the paddock proved very costly in the final analysis.
Dan Porter, Matt O'Connor, Jesse McGilvary, Sam Mitchell and Tanaka Karaitiana were the try scorers for East Coast and Porter kicked four conversions. Damien Paku, Charlie Brown and Eric Kohitulu were the Pioneer try scorers with Tipi Haira kicking three penalties and managing one conversion.
The unity of their forwards, especially in the mauls and on the "pick and go", highlighted Eketahuna's win over Gladstone in the curtain-raiser on the No1 ground.
Loosies Joss Tua-Davidson, Johan Van Vliet and Luke Mahoney were willing ball carriers who seldom failed to make decent ground and the same could be said of locks Daniel Griffin and Brandon Young.
Griffin, in fact, would probably have won any player of the match award as he was also a regular winner of lineout ball and a determined forager for possession in the mauls.
The Eketahuna backs were generally content to play second fiddle to their forwards but when they did move the ball wide there was a lot to admire about the silky attacking skills of midfielder Etuale Feo and the hard running of wing Mata Mataitini.
Gladstone were always close enough on the scoreboard to harbour hopes of victory and there was a stage in the second half, in fact, where they looked as if they may be finishing of the stronger of the two sides. However, Eketahuna regathered themselves in time to thwart that danger and Mataitini crossed for the try which made all the difference to the final result.
Nippy halfback Inia Katia was the standout for Gladstone with his uncanny ability to make room for himself through a mix of clever footwork and sheer cheek and both first-five John Bailey and centre Michael Vuicikau also impressed, Bailey with his calmness under pressure and Vuicikau with his determined running.
In No 8 John Stevenson and lock Andrew McLean Gladstone had two forwards who put their noses to the grindstone for the full 80 minutes and flanker Lance Harris also got through a power of work.
Mata Mataitini and Johan Van Vloiet scored tries for Eketahuna and Joe Hull kicked three penalties and one conversion.
Inia Katia scored Gladstone's sole try and John Bailey kicked one conversion and three penalties.
The three other premier division matches were all played on the back grounds at Memorial Park and there were some interesting results with Martinborough beating Marist 31-25, Greytown turning up the heat to beat Featherston 63-12 and Carterton scoring a 23-3 victory over Masterton Red Star.
Saturday's games represented the first series of pool games in the main championship for the Tuii Cup. Unofficial points:
Pool A: East Coast 5, Greytown 5, Martinborough 5, Pioneer 1, Marist 1.
Pool B: Eketahuna 4, Carterton 4, Gladstone 1, Masterton Red Star 0, Featherston 0.