It was gutsy, but it was close!

Wairarapa-Bush rugby coach Peter Russell was praising the character of his side after their 10-6 win over East Coast in a Heartland championship match at Ruatoria on Saturday.,
Russell was not over-enthusiastic at the manner in which victory was achieved but was pleased with the way his side had maintained their discipline against opposition which went out of their way to slow the tempo of the game down.
"They (East Coast) had some big lumbering guys up front and obviously they didn't want them moving around the field too much,"he said. "So they were quite content to go from scrum to scrum or lineout to lineout with the idea of giving their forwards a bit of a rest from time to time."
Russell said the number of restarts in the match was over 100,a statistic compounded by a what he kindly described as some "interesting" refereeing decisions.
"There wasn't a lot of flow to the game and from that point of view it wasn't what you would call entertaining," he said " It sort of stuttered along and it was difficult for us to get any structure into it."
So many were the restarts in the second half, in fact, that it went for 51 minutes, 11 minutes longer than normal.
Russell was heartened though by the way Wairarapa-Bush stuck to their task in difficult circumstances.
"It wasn't anywhere near a perfect performance but we did show plenty of character and resolve and that was a big plus," he said. "It was one of those games where if we let our frustrations get the better of us we could easily have lost, and it was good that we didn't do that."
Winger Junior Togia scored an early try for Wairarapa-Bush and Russell believes they could have had two or three others but for wrong options being taken.
" There were times when only last pass had to be made and tries would probably have been scored but the ball carrier elected to go alone an was cut down, the option taking wasn't all it should have been,' he said.
Veteran lock Mike Robinson was a tireless worker in a Wairarapa-Bush pack which battled manfully against their much bulkier East Coast counterparts.He made several surging bursts as did hooker and captain Joe Harwood.
Flanker Sylvanus Iro was prominent through his high workrate on attack and defence and middle rower Tomasi Kedarabuka impressed with his mobility and agility when he joined the action in the second half.
The Wairarapa-Bush backs generally made good metreage on the few occasions they were given the chance to show their attacking skills.It usually took more than one tackler to stop the progress of midfielders Nathan Couch and Simanu Simanu and winger Francis Seumanutata used his pace to telling effect whenever the ball came his way.
Junior Togia scored a try for Wairarapa-Bush and Patrick Rimene kicked one penalty and one conversion. G.Paterson kicked two penalties for East Coast.
Saturday's win was Wairarapa-Bush's third in as many matches in their pool of the Heartland championship and it practically guaranteed them a place in the top six playoffs for the Meads Cup, starting in three weeks time.
They now sit on 13 points, just one behind the leaders in their pool North Otago, the team they play in Masterton next Saturday in what coach Russell is labelling as their "test match" of the five pool games.
"They (North Otago) will obviously give us a good gauge of what our championship prospects are," he said. "Like East Coast they played a division above us last year but that counts for nothing now.Play well and we can win, everyone involved in the side believes that and it's up to us to make it happen."