Eketahuna target trophy

Cross Country Rentals Eketahuna's stunning 34-12 defeat of defending champions Northern United in their Wellington premier division women's rugby match in Porirua on Saturday seems certain to earn them the trophy for first-round winners.
An official points table was not available yesterday but going into the latest series of games, Eketahuna are understood to have been sitting on 20 points after four wins from five matches (four bonus points) and Norths on 19 points after winning four from four (three bonus points).
That being the case, the five points secured by Eketahuna on Saturday - four for a win and a bonus for scoring four or more tries - will take them to 25 points. It means that while they have the bye when the first round comes to an end this weekend, they cannot be overhauled, thereby giving them their first trophy success since they joined the Wellington competition.
Making Saturday's success even more satisfying for Eketahuna was that it halted a string of defeats against Norths, including in the last two premier division grand finals, albeit both by narrow margins.
The win did not come as easily as the score might suggest. Norths fielded their usual big pack - they probably had on average 15kg-20kg on their Eketahuna counterparts - and for most of the first half they had a clear edge in territory and possession.
Norths' expertise at the "pick and go" was never better exemplified than when they scored their only try of the first half. They started from inside their own 22 and went through about 12 phases before the try was scored.
"We just couldn't get the ball from them and it wasn't through any lack of effort on our part," Eketahuna coach Sid Tatana said. "It was all about size, once they got a roll on we didn't have the physical strength to stop them."
Remarkably, despite the wealth of quality ball coming their way, Norths still found themselves trailing 12-5 at the halftime break, with Eketahuna twice capitalising on defensive deficiencies.
The halftime break saw Tatana stressing the need for Eketahuna to lift the ante as there were clear indications the Norths forwards were fast running out of steam.
"It was pretty obvious we had the edge in fitness and we had to start making that count," Tatana said. "The more we could make their pack move around the paddock the better it was going to be for us."
The second spell was all Eketahuna.The forwards, led by impressive loosies Jesse Bennett and Shaan Waru, utilised their mobility to telling effect and Black Fern Rebecca Mahoney was the ideal play-maker at first-five, passing and kicking judiciously. Her astute option-taking often allowed the hard-running Maia Tua-Davidson and Shakira Baker and speedy Heidi Whitman to make huge metres.
"We were a class above them in the backs, they couldn't foot it with us there," Tatana said. "We ran in some nice tries but we probably should have got three or four more, sometimes the alignment wasn't as good as it could have been."
Eketahuna and Norths will next meet at Memorial Park in Masterton in a match already being billed as a feature of the WBRFU's 125th anniversary celebrations over Queen's Birthday weekend and Tatana expects a battle royal there.
"They [Norths] will be hurting, it should be a beauty."