Masterton Red Star book home semi

Masterton Red Star booked themselves a home semi-final in the Wairarapa-Bush premier division rugby competition with their 27-19 win over Carterton at Memorial Park on Saturday.
It is now guaranteed that East Coast will host one semi-final on July 25 at Whareama and Masterton Red Star will host the other at Memorial Park but who will be their opponents won't be confirmed until after the last series of preliminary round games next weekend.
Still in the reckoning for those last two spots after Saturday's games are Martinborough (48pts), Pioneer (47pts), Greytown (45pts), Marist (45pts) and Gladstone (43pts).
Seven days on Martinborough will be at home to East Coast, Gladstone will be at home to Marist and Pioneer and Greytown will meet at Park Sportsground and results there will decide their semi-final aspirations.
Masterton Red Star were kept honest by a depleted but brave Carterton side in their latest outing.
They led 12-9 at halftime in a penalty-ridden game and it was 12-12 soon after, all the points having come from penalty goals.
However, Masterton Red Star ran in a couple of tries early in the last quarter and they were to prove decisive in the end result.
This was not by an means an entirely convincing performance by Masterton Red Star, though with a number of prime try scoring chances going begging through a mix of poor passing and handling skills and indifferent option taking.
Up front there were the usual solid performances from Tim Hintz and Jake Bubb in the tighter exchanges and Chris Senior in the loose.
Of the backs Byron Karaitiana again had a big say with the accuracy of his goal kicking and Jordan Watene made some telling breaks in midfield.
Carterton gave as good as they received in all departments except the one which counts the most, the scoreboard. In No.8 Mike Wakefield they had the best forward on the paddock.
He made several strong bursts and was tenacious on defence.
Flankers Brock Price and Moses Gutuvakaca also impressed with their high workrate while first-five, 17-year-old schoolboy Jared Nyssen, and hard-running wing Robbie Brown were the pick of the rearguard.
Jordan Watene and Trevell Rimene scored tries for Masterton Red Star with Byron Karaitiana adding five penalties and one conversion.
Brock Price scored a try for Carterton and Nyssen kicked four penalties and one conversion.
East Coast registered three tries to one in beating Gladstone 24-8.
TK Karaitiana, Luke Shanks and Peter Gray all picked up five pointers and Nick Olson kicked three conversions and one penalty. Andrew Patrick scored a try for Gladstone and Jason Kjestrup kicked a penalty goal.
Martinborough gained revenge for a narrow first round defeat when they beat Pioneer 17-6.
Greg Wilson and Owen Coulson were the try scorers for the green-and-blacks and Wilson also kicked two conversions and one penalty. David Te Rito kicked two penalties for Pioneer.
Marist didn't have everything their own way before beating Puketoi 26-13.
Shane Lewis (2), Api Matenga and Murray Gleeson scored the Marist tries with James Goodger kicking two conversions and Nathan Couch one. Simon Finnie scored a try for Puketoi whose tally also included one conversion and two penalties.
Greytown and Eketahuna played under lights at Eketahuna on Friday night and after a hard tussle Greytown got home 27-14. Brett Rudman, C.Mason, H.Meyrick Tavita Isaac and S.Grant scored the Greytown tries and Senoa Isaac kicked one conversion. John Guillard and Rupeni Temjani scored tries for Eketahuna and Graeme Cremen landed two conversions.