Kicking off with a bang

Coach Mark Rutene was delighted with the result.

WAIRARAPA-BUSH kicked off their 2013 Heartland Championship campaign in style with a gutsy 20-18 win over more favoured North Otago at Oamaru on Saturday.

Trailing by 8-7 after a first half in which North Otago had called the tune both in terms of territory and possession, Wairarapa-Bush lifted their effort several notches in the second spell and while the end margin between the two sides was a narrow one they deserved their success.

Coach Mark Rutene was delighted to come away from such a difficult first-up assignment with four competition points.

"They (North Otago) are always a tough team to bowl and we're rapt with the result," Rutene said. "Obviously there are still things to work on but the way the guys gutsed it out was really impressive, those last 10 minutes were pretty tense but they never let up."

Rutene said Wairarapa-Bush struggled to get any continuity into their play through most of the first 40 minutes.

"The lineouts were messy and we didn't get a lot of good ball from there and we didn't seem to be able to string phases together, we'd go one or two and then things would break down."

Fortunately, however, some determined defence ensured North Otago's territorial advantage was not reflected on the halftime scoreboard. In fact, it was only a penalty kicked late in the half which gave them their one point lead at the interval.

Rutene labelled the Wairarapa-Bush second half performance as a "big improvement." Attaining decent lineout ball remained a struggle but their pack competed strongly in all other aspects of the forward game and consequently the backs were more often able to demonstrate their attacking skills.

Loose forwards James Goodger and Nathan Iro were outstanding performers for Wairarapa-Bush. Goodger's display was simply a continuation of the massive contribution he had made in the victory over Horowhenua-Kapiti in a non-championship game seven days previously. Like then he was a leading light on both attack and defence.

Iro, at No8, starred in several rampaging bursts and invariably it took two or three defenders to halt his progress.

Prop Finnbarr Kerr-Newell was another Wairarapa-Bush forward to shine. He too made a number of storming runs and was a keen scrapper for possession in the mauls and the same could be said of fellow prop Jon Fuamaono when he came off the reserves bench.

Lock Lachie McFazdean also made valuable metres whenever he got his hands on the ball.

Both halfbacks used by Wairarapa-Bush, Zeb Aporo and Joseph Sio, had solid games and there was some astute tactical play by Glen Walters, especially in the second half.

Midfielders Byron Karaitiana and Titapu Pairama-Lewington ran hard and defended stoutly as did Tapaga Isaac when he joined the action in the second half.

Kerr-Newell and Nathan Hunt scored tries for Wairarapa-Bush and Walters kicked two conversions, one penalty and a dropped goal. Chris Taianoa and Toetuu Hausia scored tries for North Otago and Edward Kepohane kicked one conversion and two penalties.

Wairarapa-Bush is at home at Memorial Park this coming Saturday to West Coast in a match which will start at 1pm. The West Coast line-up is likely to include a former Tuhirangi first-five Tim Priest.