Pack lays foundation for East Coast win

A powerful forward effort laid the foundations for East Coast's surprisingly comfortable 31-7 win over Pioneer in their Wairarapa-Bush premier division rugby match at the Park Sportsground in Masterton on Saturday.
Pioneer were expected to be a handful for the defending champions on their home turf but they were shut of the game for long periods by an East Coast eight which hunted as one.
Several times during the course of the game Pioneer took the ball into maul or tackle situations only to have it stolen from them and they also struggled to combat the fire and unity of the East Coast pack in the scrums and lineouts as well.
Front rowers Willie Leota, Ross Thompson and Tereina Rimene were the epitome of industriousness for East Coast, not only applying themselves diligently in the tighter exchanges but also impressing with their aggressive surges with ball in hand.
In Joe Feast East Coast clearly had the best lineout forward on the paddock and there was an appealing astuteness about the ability of No 8 T.K. Karaitiana to put himself in the right position at the right time on both attack and defence.
With their forwards in such dynamic form the East Coast backs had plenty of opportunity to show their paces and they looked in good touch. First-five Zeb Aporo was clearly the pick of them with his willingness to run the ball at the opposition and his calmness under pressure but there was a lot to like about too the solidness of Sam Mitchell in midfield and the counter attacking skills of fullback Nick Olson.
While East Coast could feel well pleased with their performance it must be said this was not one of Pioneer's better efforts. Their forwards lacked their usual sting in tight play which meant that the ball-running skills of loosies like the Rolls brothers, Nathan and Isaac, were seldom able to be utilised.
And what good possession Pioneer did get was invariably wasted through aimless kicking in the backs with the ball invariably going to hand rather than open spaces. What was impressive though was the speed and accuracy of the pass from halfback Kako Te Whare who came though a thoroughly testing assignment with flying colours.
East Coast picked up the maximum five competition points by running in five tries through Willie Leota, Luke McKenna, Zeb Aporo, Saan Aporo and Nick Olson and Olson added three conversions. Ihe Namana scored a try for Pioneer and Nathan Rolls kicked a conversion.
The boot of Chris Osborne played a big part in Masterton Red Star's 19-13 victory over Gladstone at Memorial Park. In a match which could well have gone either way Osborne finished with 14 points from the boot with one conversion and four penalty goals and, what's more, he scored his team's only try as well. Tim Fleming and Scott McBride scored tries for Gladstone and Jason Kjestrup kicked one penalty goal.
Blockbusting Marist No.8 Joe Nuku came up with a hat-trick of tries in his team's 43-27 beating of Eketahuna in a game which saw no fewer than 12 tries scored in all, seven to Marist and five to Eketahuna.
Apart from Nuku those to touch down for Marist were Anthony Balks, Shane Lewis, Murray Gleeson and Jareth Fox, while Kahu Matenga kicked four conversions. Brendan Walker, Sully Alsop, Luke Mahoney and J. Tutavahi scored tries for Eketahuna with Graeme Cremen managing one conversion.
Greytown were kept honest by a plucky Puketoi but got home by 29-13. Senoa Isaac and Johnny Avatea scored the tries for Greytown and Isaac added two conversions and five penalties.
The clash between Carterton and Martinborough was always likely to be a close, tense encounter and so it was with Carterton taking the honours 18-15. Halfback Justin Lett scored two tries for Carterton with Jono Hurley kicking two penalties and one conversion. Warren Ireland, Jared Hawkins and T. Luimaihetau scored tries for Martinborough.