Wairarapa-Bush beaten by strong Wellington Samoans

At first glance Wairarapa-Bush's 34-12 thumping by Wellington Samoans at Memorial Park, Masterton on Saturday could be seen as the worst possible lead-up to their Heartland championship campaign beginning against Buller in Westport next weekend.
Look deeper into the quality of their opposition though and the fact they were on the end of a hefty beating becomes more understandable.
This was a Samoans side containing many of the players who won Wellington's main club trophy, the Jubilee Cup, for Norths.
Consequently they knew each other's play well, a handy advantage against a Wairarapa-Bush side still in the throes of working out which combinations were best for their Heartland opener and missing at least a couple of key players through injury or unavailability. There was a high degree of skill in the Samoans lineup too, enough to suggest that if they were playing at Heartland level the odds about them winning the Meads Cup title would be nothing fancy.
Then there was their considerable physical presence with forwards and backs having the bulk and the mobility to ideally suit a game plan built around battering their opposition into submission. In hand-to-hand combat around the fringes of the rucks and mauls they were extremely difficult to stop and it was from there they launched most of their most potent attacks.
It wasn't as if the Samoans had everything their own way either. Indeed statistics would show Wairarapa-Bush probably had an edge in territory and were at least equal to them in the crucial ball winning areas of scrum and lineout.
Several times during the course of both halves the home team threatened to get across the tryline and perhaps the most disconcerting feature of their performance was their inability to turn all but two of those opportunities into five points.
What's more there was justifiable debate about the legality of the first of their tries, with the Samoans convinced a knock-on had occurred well before fullback Nick Olson touched down. Their argument appeared to have good substance from the grandstands but after a discussion between referee and assistant referee the try was awarded.
The other Wairarapa-Bush try was a beauty, however, with centre Heemi Tupaea scoring after a nice draw and pass by young winger Jesse McGilvary.
Those tries, one of which was converted by Jeremy Te Huia, gave Wairarapa-Bush a 12-0 lead but any thoughts of that being extended into a decisive winning margin soon became a distant memory as the Samoans rattled off three tries of their own, one of them converted, to go the halftime break with a 17-12 advantage. And all the scoring in the second half came from them, three tries, one conversion and a penalty goal.
Little blame could be attached to the Wairarapa-Bush forwards for their team's struggles to turn territory into points. Experienced campaigners like Dylan Higgison, Richard Puddy, Kurt Simmonds and Joe Harwood ensured their scrum was more than competitive and Brandon Young, Dan Griffin, Andrew McLean and John McFadzean again showed the attaining of lineout ball shouldn't be a problem in 2010.
In the looser facets of the forward game too Wairarapa-Bush generally gave as good as they received with No 8 Duncan Law right back to the form which made him a standout player last season. Seldom did he fail to make good headway with ball in hand and he was solid on the tackle. Flankers McFadzean and Rupeni Temani were handy performers as well.
It was a difficult day at the office for the Wairarapa-Bush backs, who struggled to get any sort of continuity into their game on attack and were all too often suspect on defence.
Considerable interest was taken into the debut for the province of Wellington "loan player" Jeremy Te Huia at first-five but while he showed a couple of nice touches the jury is still out as to whether he will be a better investment than incumbent Byron Karaitiana, who replaced him after halftime and lost nothing in comparison.
The most consistent of the Wairarapa-Bush backs on this occasion was clearly second-five Sam Mitchell, who was determined on the run and dependable on the tackle and if fullback Nick Olson did make the odd blunder he was at least penetrative on the counter attack, an area in which winger Tommy Harmon made a positive impression as well.
Playing the curtain-raiser were the Wairarapa-Bush B and Wairarapa-Bush Maori sides with the Bs leading 31-10 at halftime and going on to win by 57-17. Diminutive winger Charlie Brown scored a couple of scorchers for the Bs, who were also well served up front by Tim Fleming and Joe Nuku.