East Coast hope to make history

East Coast will be attempting to create history when they play Marist in the grand final of the Wairarapa-Bush senior first division rugby competition at Memorial Park, Masterton next Saturday.
The small Whareama-based club has never won the premiership, having fallen at the last hurdle twice in the past decade, and will be hoping to make it third time lucky on this occasion.
Neither East Coast or Marist were seeded in the top four going into last weekend's quarter-finals but defeats of higher-seeded teams Pioneer and Greytown respectively saw them through to the semis on Saturday where they continued on their winning way.
Both matches were closely-contested affairs though with East Coast staving off a brave Martinborough challenge 13-3 and Marist edging out defending champions Gladstone 8-6.
Playing at Whareama where ground conditions were much better than anticipated considering the recent inclement weather, East Coast could thank the attacking flair of fullback Nicki Olson and second-five Te Maika Mason for their hard-earned victory.
The pacy and elusive Olson has been a regular try scorer all season and he added two more to his tally here, the first having an element of luck attached to it after he looked to chip the ball over the cover defence and it rebounded off a defender back into his arms
The second though was a classy effort with Mason breaking through what had been a sturdy Martinborough defence and timing his pass to Olson to perfection.
He scored near the posts with Russell Farrell, who had earlier kicked a penalty goal, missing the conversion.
All Martinborough had to show on the scoreboard for 80 minutes of solid endeavour was a Greg Wilson penalty but they contributed mightily to a game which featured a torrid battle between two packs desperate to gain ascendancy in the ball-winning departments.
As it happened, however, neither side could claim to have taken the honours there with the slight advantage East Coast had in the scrums being countered by some good work by Martinborough in the lineouts.
And the liveliness of both sets of loose forwards meant the amount of quality ball attained at the breakdowns was pretty much even-stevens.
Front rowers Chris Starling, Deon Mitchell and Darren Walker, were again prominent for East Coast, using their combined strengths effectively in the scrums and in the rucks and mauls.
James Balfour was their main supplier of lineout ball and also impressed with his mobility about the paddock and Craig Stuart and Joe Feast were both quick and constructive in the loose.
Locks Sam Walsh and Bodean Hawkins and No.8 Matt O'Neale ensured Martinborough got their share of lineout ball, prop Daniel George shirked nothing in the tight and Jared Hawkins and Peter Ireland were a couple of flankers who were always near the centre of action.
As mentioned previously Olson and Mason were the stars of an East Coast backline which always looked more dangerous on attack than their Martinborough opposites.
Olson was a major threat whenever allowed room in which to move while Mason backed up some strong running with some hefty punts which gained valuable territory for his side.
The Martinborough backs made it easy for the East Coast defence to close them down by being too stereotyped in their approach although second-five Ryan Renata and fullback Aidan Lambert did show touches of class at times.
Martinborough coach John Danger was not in a mood to be critical of his team though, noting that making the semis was a long way better than they had done for some seasons now.
"We've got to be happy with what we achieved, it's a good building base for next season," he said.
Marist v Gladstone
The Marist forwards were the surprise packets in their side's narrow win over Gladstone in what was a repeat of last year's grand final, although on that occasion it was of course Gladstone who took the spoils.
General expectations were that Gladstone would call the tune up front but the Marist pack rose to the occasion magnificently and, if anything, might actually have had the better of the forward battle.
Marist coach Sid Tatana was not surprised his forwards did the business, saying he was confident they would respond well to the challenge of measuring up to Gladstone there.
"They had the acid put on them to work hard and play aggressively and I was thrilled with the way they kept at it for the full 80 minutes," he said.
Young lock James Goodger was again a standout for Marist, not only excelling in the lineouts but having a huge workrate in all other facets of the forward game as well. The front row of Lee Paku, Kyle Karaitiana and Peter Hosking anchored what was a soild scrum and Ben Couch and Joe Nuku were typically industrious in the loose.
No.8 Mike Spence was a tireless worker for Gladstone on both attack and defence while Tim Fleming made his usual telling contribution at lineout time and prop Kurt Simmonds plied his trade diligently in the tight.
Fullback Murray Gleeson was the pick of the Marist backs, showing good positional sense and a willingness to counter attack whenever the opportunity arose.
Wing Jareth Fox was always looking for work and the experience of Patrick Rimene at first-five was a definite plus.
Centre Jordan Watene was the standout in the Gladstone rearguard, both for his hard running on attack and his solidness on defence. Dean Grant also had his moments but unfortunately for Gladstone was not his usual accurate self in the goal kicking department, missing at least three penalty attempts from relatively close range.
Gladstone coach Steve Thompson was philosophical about his team bowing out of the championship race after being the dominant team for virtually the whole season.
"Obviously it's a bit frustrating and disappointing to end things like this but that's the way it goes sometimes ," he said.
Semi-final final matches in the senior first division plate saw Carterton sneak home 23-22 over Pioneer and Greytown score a comfortable 32-23 win over Carterton.