Rugby
It wasn't pretty but Eketahuna got the result they wanted when they beat East Coast 9-7 in their Tui Cup premier division rugby match at Eketahuna on Saturday.
The three penalty goals legitimately landed by first-five Tom Meuli were enough to earn Eketahuna a home semifinal against Pioneer next weekend, and also enough to satisfy most in a huge crowd who turned up to help celebrate the club's old-timers' day.
Meuli was successful with four penalty attempts during the course of the game but had one ruled out by referee Andrew Springer for a player being in front of the kicker.
That came with East Coast clinging to a slender 7-6 lead and would have undoubtedly been the talk of the town, had not East Coast offended again and Meuli not been given another chance to get the nose in front. Eketahuna were always likely to revolve their game plan around keeping the ball close to the forwards, while East Coast, who will now travel to Greytown for the other semifinal, needed to win and score four tries in the process to enhance their seeding.