Greytown still in the hunt

Greytown-Tuhirangi kept their championship aspirations very much alive by beating Marist 29-12 in their Wairarapa-Bush senior first division rugby match at Memorial Park, Masterton on Saturday.
It took two late tries to seal the victory for the combined side but their winning margin was probably a fair enough indication of the merits of the two teams.
Up front it was Greytown-Tuhirangi who called the tune in the set pieces, particularly the scrum where they often had Marist on the back pedal.
Props Jon Tanner and Dylan Higginson and hooker Bevan Moreland did a grand job for them there in the first half and there was no slackening of performance when Bevan Parker and Bruce McKenzie joined the fray from the reserve bench in the second spell.
Indeed Parker became of his team's special heroes by dashing a good 20 metres for a try at a time when his side badly needed to convert territorial dominance into points on the board.
The Greytown-Tuhirangi lineout play was not as efficient as their scrummaging with ball too often being knocked down rather than gathered cleanly but in Norm Henricksen they still had the most regular attainer of possession in that crucial department.
And in the looser phases of the forward game there was a lot to like about the rampaging running in broken play of No.8 Sylvanus Iro and the diligence of Stacey Grant, especially on cover defence.
The Greytown-Tuhirangi backs had what could best be described as a mixed day.
There were occasions when players like Dutch international Bart Viguurs at first-five Kingi Kaiwai at second-five and Tavita Isaac on the wing threatened to open up the opposition defence but there were just as many times when possession was wasted through shoddy passing and handling
That situation did improve though when the experienced Mark Childs joined the midfield in the second half. His influence, both on attack and defence was marked (no pun intended).
For Viguurs it was his debut game for his new club and he could be satisfied with his performance.. There was an admirable coolness about his play and his option taking was mostly sound. He generally gained good metreage with his line kicks and showed a handy turn of speed on the counter attack.
The Marist forwards might have been out played in the possession stakes but they lacked nothing on the score of grit, Geordie Walden and Rhys Severn were a couple of lively flankers, big lock Kerry Hargood was always a threat when on the rampage and Ngamu Lopa was typically industrious in the front row.
The Marist backs were a bit like their Greytown-Tuhirangi counterparts, impressive at times and ordinary at others. First-five Patrick Rimene did, however, have a solid game and lost nothing in comparison with Viguurs, and Nathan Couch made two or three piercing bursts in midfield. Fullback Phil Aporo was also a hard man to stop when given space in which to move but all too seldom got the chance to show his wares.
Tavita Isaac, Sylvanus Iro, John Tanner, Bevan Parker and Mark Butler scored tries for Greytown-Tuhirangi and Bart Viguurs kicked two conversions.
Quentin Aspinall scored a try for Marist and they were also awarded a penalty try.Patrick Rimene kicked one conversion.
Carterton coach Steve Hurley was making no excuses for his team's surprise 19-15 loss to Pioneer in the game played at Carterton.
"They (Pioneer) played with a lot of enthusiasm and aggression and we couldn't match them," Hurley said. "It got close in the finish but they would have been unlucky to lose."
Outstanding for Pioneer, which led 19-3 going into the last 10 minutes, were first-five Richard Carroll and loose forward Nathan Rolls.
Carroll, just back from a long injury break, directed operations intelligently in the pivotal role while Rolls was his usual lively self, running strongly on attack and defending stoutly.
Second-five Tommy Harmon, replacement prop Mike Wakefield and loosie Jason Vainu were the standouts for Carterton.
Anton Kainuku, Dave Ewe and Tipi Rimene were the Pioneer try scorers with Richard Carroll landing two conversions. Jason Vainu and Mike Wakefield scored the Carterton tries and Neil Rodger kicked one penalty and one conversion.
They would have been celebrating long and hard in Pongaroa after Puketoi's commanding 34-3 win over Masterton Red Star.
It was Puketoi's first win of the season and came just a few weeks after they had been forced to default a game because of a shortage of front row forwards.
The home team outgunned Stars in the battle for possession and both backs and forwards impressed with their willingness to run hard at the opposition defence.
Masterton Red Star fielded a depleted side but their coach Wayne Loader was not prepared to dwell on that in his after match comments.
"Puketoi came out firing and we didn't have any answer to them, it was as simple as that," he said.
Marcus Henson scored the only points for Stars with a penalty goal and the pick of their players were first-five Jamie Fraser and tight forward Hemi Hart.
Competition leaders Eketahuna made the refreshments taste even better at their old timer's day by beating Gladstone 38-20, running in six tries in the procress.
Spearheaded by front rowers Rob Foreman, Angus McMillan and Brendan Walker and lock Tim Iro Eketahuna had the better of the forward exchanges and there was some clever attacking play in the backs from Hamish McKenzie and Simanu Simanu.
Gladstone had a hard-working loose forward in Rob Dick and John Uys was safe at fullback.
Tim Iro scored two of the Eketahuna tries with others going to Julian Nicholson, Brendan Walker, Luke Mahoney and Johnny Harris. Simanu Simanu kicked four conversions.
East Coast and Martinborough had a closely-contested match at Whareama with the Coasters getting home by 18-10. Scoring details were not available at the time of going to press.