Rutene mixed on Bush loss

Wairarapa-Bush coach Mark Rutene had mixed feelings after his team's narrow 16-12 loss to Mid-Canterbury in their Heartland championship rugby match at Methven on Saturday.
Rutene was understandably gutted that Mid-Canterbury had snatched victory with a try just two minutes from fulltime but he was rapt with the huge improvement made by Wairarapa-Bush from their hefty defeat at the hands of Thames Valley seven days earlier.
"Obviously you always want to win so, yes, to lose like that was pretty gutting," Rutene said. "Even more so when we'd probably done enough to actually deserve the win, that made it even worse".
Rutene was delighted, however, that the soul-searching done within the Wairarapa-Bush camp since the Thames Valley loss had produced a much more committed effort.
Against Thames Valley the lack of intensity had enabled the opposition to build an unassailable lead by halftime but on Saturday Wairarapa-Bush ripped into their work from the word go and were level pegging with an equally determined Mid-Canterbury at 6-6 at the break.
First-five Trent Vatselias had landed two penalties for Wairarapa-Bush and Stefan van Gruting likewise for Mid-Canterbury.
The second half was also closely-contested with the forwards continuing to share possession and Wairarapa-Bush looking more dangerous in the backs but struggling to break a tenacious Mid-Canterbury defence.
It was the home team, however, who broke the deadlock when they scored a fortuitous try when a Wairarapa-Bush clearing kick landed right in the hands of a Mid Canterbury's Jason Rickard and he accepted the gift and crashed over for a five pointer.
Wairarapa-Bush struck back to take the lead 12-11 with two further Vatselias penalties and they also had the misfortune to have a try disallowed livewire flanker James Goodger after he had charged down a kick and regathered possession. He was ruled offside much to the surprise of some onlookers.
What was to be the winning Mid-Canterbury try by Pete McAndtrew came two minutes from fulltime.The ball was channelled through four or five phases of play and a desperate Wairarapa-Bush defence was finally cracked. Rutene likened the match to a chess game with any amount of thrust and counter thrust.
"It was what you'd expect from two Heartland teams giving it everything they had, both teams played like they wanted it. It was a really good game of rugby."
Young loose forwards Goodger and Johan Van Vliet were two of the star performers in a Wairarapa-Bush pack which impressed with their physicality and mobility. Prop Kurt Simmonds and lock Brandan Young were others to shine up front.
The one blot on the Wairarapa-Bush forward effort was the loss through injury early in the game of lock Dan Griffin. He dislocated an elbow and looks certain to be out for the remainder of the Heartland season.
It was only a couple of years ago that Griffin missed a whole representative season with a knee injury.
The Wairarapa-Bush backs produced their most encouraging display of the season. Vatselias looked assured at first-five and there was strong running and tackling in midfield from Tommy Harmon and Heemi Tupaea. Fullback Nick Olson was dangerous on the counter-attack.
Wairarapa-Bush picked up their second bonus point for ending the 80 minutes within seven or less points of the winning side but head into their next match against Buller at Memorial Park, Masterton this Saturday in a precarious position on the points table.
Saturday's results: North Otago 30, Poverty Bay 30; Mid-Canterbury 16, Wairarapa-Bush 12; Wanganui 28, South Canterbury 18; Thames Valley 36, Horowhenua-Kapiti 5; Buller 34, King Country 20; East Coast 20, West Coast 15.
Competition points: Thames Valley 10, Wanganui and Buller 9, North Otago and East Coast 8, Mid-Canterbury and Horowhenua-Kapiti 5, Poverty Bay 4, Wairarapa-Bush 2, West Coast and South Canterbury 1, King Country 0.