Gladstone out-muscle under-strength Carterton

Gladstone out-muscled an under-strength Carterton to notch a comfortable 23-0 away win in an uninspiring Wairarapa-Bush Senior A rugby division season opener on Saturday.
The visitors dominated upfront and showed more commitment at the breakdown to force turnover after turnover and should have won by more had they not blown several clear-cut opportunities.
Three quarters of the match had slipped by before Gladstone was able to breach the home side's torrid defence and cross the line, despite dominating territory and possession throughout the match.
On at least three occasions players were guilty of cutting back inside with team mates to burn out wide, making the 6-0 halftime lead a lot closer than it should have been.
But to their credit Gladstone kept grinding away and were finally rewarded when loosehead prop Bevan Morland burrowed over from a lineout drive in the 61st minute.
Big No.8 Mike Spence then sealed the match moments later, flattening opposing fullback Jono Hurley to charge over after some fine work by winger Bayden Stevenson.
Gladstone fullback Matt Easterman capped a solid defensive game to slot 5 out of 6 with the boot for a personal haul of 13 points while nuggety halfback James Bruce was into everything and centre Andrew Patrick looked slick on attack.
"I'm real pleased with their effort for this time of the season," Gladstone coach Steve Thompson said.
"Not all the right options were taken and it was pretty scrappy at times but I'm happy.
"There's plenty to work on still but the points are on the board and mentally it's good to get that first one behind you and look forward to the next one."
Giving away plenty in size, the Carterton forward pack left nothing on the field and can take plenty of kudos for their committed defence.
Promoted from the Senior 3rds, openside flanker Reece Percy was a standout taking up the lion's share of the tackling alongside captain Joe Harwood, who did his utmost to slow the ball down at every ruck and for the most part got away with it.
However, Carterton showed little enterprise on attack and were guilty of going it alone too often, leading them to be consistently penalised for holding onto the ball in the tackle.
It didn't help their scrum was constantly under pressure, giving up at least four turnovers to the superior Gladstone pack who wheeled them around at will.
But with seven frontline players still to return to the side, Carterton coach Steve Hurley was not showing any sign of concern just yet.
"Last year we lost our first four matches and ended up winning the championship so I'm not too worried about this," he said.
"I was pretty proud of our defence, the boys hung tough for 60 minutes but in the end Gladstone were too good for us today.
"They have a big pack and we were out-muscled for long stretches which kept us on the back foot and that is all credit to them."
In the week's other matches it was triumph all round for the home sides as Pioneer stepped up to take a hard-fought 12-11 victory over heavyweights Eketahuna at Jean Street while Marist comfortably dispatched an injury-riddled East Coast 37-15.
Down south Tommy Te Kani dotted down twice and Warren Ireland once for Martinborough as they slid passed Masterton Red Star 15-10 in an ugly encounter.
It was a little more regulation for Greytown/Tuhirangi as they cruised home 32-6 against perennial cellar dwellers Puketoi.