Eketahuna crushed by Norths' onslaught

The old adage that possession is nine-tenths of the law held true for Eketahuna in their 40-26 defeat by Norths in the top-of-the-table Wellington premier division women's rugby match played at Eketahuna on Saturday.
Norths, the defending champions, invariably rely on the size of their forwards to batter their rivals into submission and it was no different on this occasion.
They constantly applied huge pressure on Eketahuna up front and, while the home team competed strongly in the lineouts through Angie Taiaroa and Koko Namana and were solid in the scrums, they still managed only about 25 per cent of possession.
''The set pieces were good but we struggled to get any ball from the mauls or broken play,'' Eketahuna coach Sid Tatana said.
''They [Norths] have some big players and they used their size well, they simply wore us down.''
Tatana was delighted though with the persistence of his team, who remained competitive on the scoreboard right up until the last 10 minutes of the match. Indeed, they held a 10-0 advantage early in the first half and even with the discrepancy in possession were able to run in four tries.
''We hung in there, we never looked like throwing in the towel,'' Tatana said.
''It was gutsy stuff but when you go long periods without the ball something is always likely to give and that's what happened in the end.''
Eketahuna were depleted by injury for Saturday's match, with inspirational skipper Perri Tatana among those sidelined. Their playing resources are currently being stretched to the limit, particularly in the back division.
''Right now the depth isn't quite where we would like it to be,'' Tatana said, adding that any new recruits would be welcomed. ''We're really thin on backs, it would be nice to boost things there.''