King Country hit Bush for six

Wairarapa-Bush had no answer to King Country's attacking flair in their Lochore Cup Heartland championship rugby match played at a sun-baked Memorial Park, in Masterton, on Saturday.
The visitors ran in six tries in their convincing 43-22 success and while they were aided and abetted by some sloppy home team defence there was still plenty to admire about the pace and elusiveness of their outside backs, who looked dangerous practically every time the ball came their way.
Not that the match was all one-way traffic.
Indeed it was Wairarapa-Bush who called the tune in the opening 10 minutes, camping themselves in the opposition 22 and launching attack after attack at the King Country line. So intense was the pressure that something had to give and it did, lock Brandon Young featuring in several rampaging runs before crashing over for a try, which Jeremy Te Huia converted to give Wairarapa-Bush a deserved 7-0 advantage.
And it could have been more with prop Kurt Simmonds held up over the line after another assault by the Wairarapa-Bush forwards and Te Huia missing a dropped goal attempt and then a penalty from 50m out which just fell under the bar.
King Country's first try should never have happened either, halfback Ben Draper catching the Wairarapa-Bush defence asleep when he took a tap kick from a penalty close to their line and throwing himself over for the five-pointer. Tanner Vili converted and it was 7-7.
Slack defence also cost Wairarapa-Bush dearly soon after when King Country No8 Rob Sherson was able to waltz through a couple of weak tackles before sending lock Aarin Dunster in for the try, which was also converted by Vili. King Country 14, Wairarapa-Bush 7.
King Country's third try came when they worked the short side after a maul and Wairarapa-Bush didn't have enough cover to stop first-five Jared Murrell from touching down. Vili missed that conversion but he was on target with a penalty minutes later to give King Country a commanding 22-7 lead.
Right on halftime, however, Wairarapa-Bush at last had something to smile about when lock Young scored his second try after some impressively aggressive play by the forwards. Te Huia missed the kick and Wairarapa-Bush went to the break trailing by 10 points, 12-22.
The second spell saw the home team applying much the same pressure as they did in the opening stanzas of the first half and again they got their reward, fullback Nick Olson scoring the try after a clean break by wing Junior Togia. Te Huia converted from the sideline and King Country's advantage had been cut to 22-19.
Any hopes Wairarapa-Bush were about to take control soon dissipated, however, with King Country striking back with a try to flanker Sam Mason after the forwards had driven hard from a lineout and Vili's conversion made it 29-19.
If that wasn't a decent blow to Wairarapa-Bush's fortunes then the two tries scored by King Country winger Lolohea Loco within a couple of minutes of each other, and not long after Te Huia landed a penalty to bring the score to 22-29, certainly were.
The first came after Loco was given the overlap through poor Wairarapa-Bush marking and the second when he outpaced the cover defence after a kick and chase. Vili converted the both of them to produce a 43-22 victory.
Loco was one of the stars of a King Country backline which was splendidly marshalled by experienced midfielder Vili, whose ability to create space for his outsides became more and more obvious - and telling - as the match progressed.
Unfortunately the Wairarapa-Bush backs had nothing like the same impact on proceedings despite having a wealth of quality possession to play with. James Bruce was his usual lively self at halfback but, while the ball was often moved wide on a regular basis, very few clean breaks were made. There was also a frustrating tendency to telegraph passes which made it easy for a stout King Country defence to ensure first-up tackles were successfully completed.
Up front Wairarapa-Bush gave every bit as good as they received, especially in the metres made from short passing rushes and rolling mauls where the likes of Brandon Young, Andrew McLean, Joe Harwood, Kurt Simmonds and Joss Tua-Davidson were generally to the fore. They also fared well in the lineouts thanks to Young, McLean and Tomasi Kedrabuka, who joined the action in the second half, and again Tua-Davidson made his mark with his aggressiveness in the looser facets of the forward game. His consistency has been one of the few shining lights in a season where overall results have been disappointing.
King Country had a couple of hard-working locks in Aarin Dunster and Beau Taylor and energetic flankers Sam Mason and Tom Sherson.