Three cellar-dweller sides take centre stage

The nature of the competition means the bottom-placed three sides will take centre stage when preliminary round matches in the Wairarapa-Bush senior first division rugby championship continue tomorrow.
The five teams who have picked up the maximum eight points from their first two games Gladstone, Marist, East Coast, Carterton and Martinborough are already well on the way to the quarter-finals but it's a very different story for Puketoi, Eketahuna, Greytown and Pioneer who languish at the bottom of the table.
Of those teams Pioneer won't be fronting up tomorrow as they have the bye, something which under the new competition format guarantees them the full four points from this particular series of matches.
That same luxury will be given Greytown in two weeks time but Puketoi and Eketahuna aren't so lucky in that they actually have to earn their points over the full complement of preliminary round games, a situation which could cost either of them dearly when it comes to deciding which one of the nine participants misses out on a quarter-final berth.
Puketoi will, however, be viewing tomorrow's encounter against Greytown at Pongaroa as a royal opportunity to get themselves off the ropes. They have gone close to beating Marist and Martinborough in their last two games and they will be backing their forwards to lay the foundations for victory over a Greytown side which would be best suited if the game became a battle of the two backlines. They will have the edge on Puketoi for pace and flair there but whether they can get enough ball to utilise it is the $64,000 question.
Eketahuna takes on Marist at Eketahuna and after being taken to the cleaners by the Eketahuna forwards in their Moose Kapene Cup competition game earlier in the season, Marist will be travelling north with some trepidation. Nathan Couch's nuptials in Fiji is also likely to weaken them to some degree so while Eketahuna is still depleted by injuries a win to them would hardly rate as a big surprise. Again they will look to batter Marist into submission up front and how Marist responds to that challenge will probably decide their fate.
Carterton won't be taking anything for granted either when they play Martinborough at Martinborough. Carterton clearly have the better record of the two this season and have the size and mobility up front to dominate the ball winning areas but Martinborough seldom lack anything on the score of endeavour. If the likes of flanker Jared Hawkins can be a big enough nuisance to stop the flow in the Carterton play anything could happen, especially with the loyal Martinborough fans sure to be in good voice!
Gladstone have rebounded nicely from a couple of shock defeats at the end of the Kapene Cup series-a competition they still managed to win and they will be firm favourites to beat East Coast at Whareama despite the latter's solid victories over Eketahuna and Greytown at their last two starts. Some interesting individual clashes could be the highlight of this one & Deon Mitchell v Richard Puddy at hooker, Chris Darling v Kurt Simmonds at prop, Joe Feast v Steve Wilkinson at loose forward and Te Maika Mason v Mike Shaw at second-five.
The curtain-raiser at Whareama will see the only colts team from Wairarapa-Bush in East Coast taking on Oroua in a Manawatu colts competition game, kick off at 1pm. East Coast have been performing well through most of the season and a good win to them is on the cards.
The Eketahuna women's team will be looking to bounce back from their narrow defeat at the hands of Linton Army last weekend when they meet Wanganui Pirates in a Manawatu premier division match in Palmerston North tomorrow.
It was only a late try which denied Eketahuna what would have been a deserved draw against Linton Army in a match which would have done credit to any men's senior first division club game as far as sheer physicality was concerned. Both teams adopted a "take no prisoners" attitude up front and it was little wonder most players had almost slowed to a walk by the final whistle.
Several of the Eketahuna players made a big impression, none more so than flanker Perri Tatana who had a huge workrate on both attack and defence. Emma Aldworth was another forward to impress with her ability to get her hands on the ball and make decent metreage in the process and when it came to hard, straight running there was no one more threatening than centre Diamond Pauli. Also impressive was fullback Michele Clarke who was safe under the high ball and dependable on the tackle.