East Coast deal to the Rams

East Coast effectively silenced the Masterton Red Star challenge within the first 30 minutes of play in their Wairarapa-Bush senior first division rugby match at Memorial Park,Masterton on Saturday.
The Coasters scored five unanswered tries in that period to establish a 27-0 lead (one conversion) and while they took the foot off the pedal for much of the remainder of the game they still finished with a comfortable 37-5 winning margin.
Nothing impressed more about the East Coast effort than their scrummaging. They completely demolished the opposition eight with monotonous regularity in this department, thanks in large part to the strength of hard working front rowers Mike Peacock, Sam Morris and Dwayne Poulson.
Peacock, in fact, emerged as a powerful contender for any player of the match award. He not only did his fair share in the tighter phases of the forward game but was found time to make a number of rampaging bursts in broken play. He finished with two tries and could have had a third when he appeared to clearly plant the ball over the line only to be deprived of the hat-trick through the referee and line umpire being unsighted.
Loosies Mike Jackson and Ian Evans were two other East Coast forwards to shine, Jackson doing a lot of tidying up around the ruck and maul area and Evans tackling strongly on defence and linking intelligently on attack.
In Te Maika Mason East Coast unearthed a promising newcomer at first-five; promising enough, in fact, to suggest he just might be representative material.He looked to have all the attributes needed for the pivotal role?.. good hands, a hefty boot, sound tactical sense and the willingness to go it alone when the opportunity arose.
It must be said though that Mason did benefit immensely from the astute play of halfback Mark Percy, whose decision making was generally spot on.
On the wing for East Coast young Nick Olson also showed enough speed and zest in attacking situations to suggest he too could be destined for higher honours in the not?too-distant future.
Masterton Red Star could never be accused of throwing in the towel but they didn't obtain enough quality possession to make a close game of it. Up front you couldn't fault the endeavour of Nathan Haglund, Peter Start, Dave McKenzie and No.8 Brent Loader, who was one of the better lineout forwards on the paddock, while big centre Fapu Tapuaiga was the pick of the backs. He was always prepared to run and hard straight and was seldom halted by the first tackle.
Mike Peacock (2), Nick Olson (2), Greg Paku, Graham Bolstad and Ross Thompson scored tries for East Coast and Te Maika Mason landed one conversion. Andrew Foote scored a try for Masterton Red Star.
Eketahuna didn't have it all their own way in their 36-0 win over Puketoi, especially in the first half which ended with the defending championships only 10-0 up.
It was up front where Puketoi made a nuisance of themselves and but for losing a number of players through injury-one with a broken leg- they could have made an even closer game of it.
Halfback Dave Murdoch scored two tries for Eketahuna with others going to John Guillard, Rob Foreman, Julian Nicholson and Jorgi Tamani.
Carterton maintained their unbeaten record with a 34-16 win over a Marist team which trailed by just the one point, 16-17, at halftime.
No.8 Joe Harwood and flanker Brodie Duffin were the stand outs in a Carterton pack which toiled away honestly all game while midfielder Tommy Harmon, wing Lance Stevenson and fullback Glen Bunny, who left the field with a leg injury, were prominent in the backs.
Marist created their share of try scoring opportunities but managed only one in the end. The scorer was Kyle Karaitiana and the rest of their points came from the boot of Patrick Rimene, who kicked three penalties and one conversion.
Try scorers for Carterton were Jason Vainu, Lance Stevenson,Thomas Harmon, Simon Searle and Glen Bunny with Neil Rodger kicking one penalty and three conversions.
Gladstone led Greytown-Tuhirangi 12-8 at halftime in their match at Gladstone and increased that advantage to 27-11 by fulltime.
With prop Jon Tanner always prominent Greytown-Tuhirangi actually had a slight edge in the forward exchanges for most of the game but their backs struggled to get into fluency into their attacking play.
In halfback James Bruce Gladstone had a player who often threatened the Greytown-Tuhirangi defence with his sharp passing and running while Jaco Uys always looked likely on attack as well. He scored a try and landed one penalty and two conversions.
Martinborough chalked up win number three from as many matches with a deserved 16-8 victory over Pioneer at Martinborough.
Prop Morgan Davies and replacement flanker Jeremy Sargent had outstanding gqmes for Martinborough in the forwards while lock Sam Walsh also starred before having to be taken from the field with a broken leg. There was impressive work too on attack and defence from fullback Aiden Lambert.
Tommy Te Kani scored a try for Martinborough and Ryan Renata kicked thre penalties and a conversion.Glen Ferguson scored a late try and kicked a penalty for Pioneer.