Jono Hurley tasted victory and defeat in two very different sporting endeavours on Saturday,
The 23-year-old combined with Matt Bunny to secure a doubles win which helped Masterton to a 6-3 victory over Pirinoa in the Wairarapa regional one tennis final at the Trust House Tennis Centre and then rushed nextdoor to Memorial Park to join the Carterton squad for their opening Wairarapa-Bush senior first division rugby match against Masterton Red Star.
He sat out the first half of that encounter on the reserves bench but entered the fray at fullback five minutes into the second half, setting up a try for his team with a well-executed grubber kick and also landing a conversion. However, his efforts were to no great avail with Carterton going down by 20-10.
Hurley said having to focus only on the doubles in the tennis as he had played _ and won _ his singles on Friday night meant there were no fitness worries when it came to the rugby.
''I was still feeling pretty fresh, it wasn't a hassle at all,'' he said.
Reflecting on Masterton's win in the tennis final, Hurley, the district's top ranked player and also a professional coach, was ''stoked to bits'' with the performance of a squad captained by his father Steve, who just happens to be assistant manager of this season's Carterton rugby team.
''We always thought it was possible but you never know, they [Pirinoa] are a good side and we couldn't take anything for granted.''
As to the rugby, Hurley wasn't too dejected by the Carterton loss, saying it was a typical early-season performance with ''rustiness'' still showing in many areas.
''We copped a lot of penalties and I guess we will have to look closely at what was happening there but on the day we were beaten by a better team,'' he said. ''Maybe it will be a blessing in disguise, we know we have to lift our standards if we want to have any chance of beating the top sides.''
