Wairarapa unlucky not to win by more

Wairarapa-Bush deserved better than their 29-26 win over King Country, in the NPC third division rugby match played at Te Kuiti on Saturday.
Not only did the visitors have two "tries" disallowed, but they also conceded two tries from King Country attacks during which the ball appeared to be knocked on.
These decisions obviously frustrated Wairarapa-Bush players and management, but coach Peter Russell was loathe to make too much of them in his after-match comments.
"I suppose you could say there were some interesting decisions, but there's no point dwelling on them," he said. " You get these sort of things from time to time and you have to take it on the chin. There's nothing else you can do really, is there?"
Russell labelled King Country as the best third division side Wairarapa-Bush has played to date this season, with their forwards, in particular, leaving a big impression.
They had plenty of size about them ? their front row had a weight advantage of 70kg over their Wairarapa-Bush opposites ? and they used it well, especially at scrum time and in the ruck and mauls.
"They did have the edge on us in the scrums for a while, and they were hard to stop when they got a drive on??..they went 30 or 40 metres at a time," he said. "We had to work hard for everything we got up front, nothing came easy there."
Wairarapa-Bush, who led 17-16 at halftime, after being ahead 17-3 at one stage, started with Dylan Higgison, Rob Foreman and Ashley Wells in the front row, and so tough was their day at the office that all three were replaced during the second half with Joe Harwood and Logan Ili coming on at prop and Ritchie McDonald at hooker.
Russell was pleased with the way the three subs handled the pressure over the last quarter, a period of the match where King Country were always close enough on the scoreboard to to keep Wairarapa-Bush honest.
"I think having fresh legs there did help the scrummaging effort," Russell said."We got more stability and that was important at that stage of the game."
Wairarapa-Bush more than held their own in the lineouts, with Mike Robinson at the front and Tomasi Kedarabuka in the middle, winning most of their own throws and managing to disrupt some of King Country's as well.
For Robinson it was very much a captain's knock, for as well as his lineout work, he was a punishing runner with ball in hand and equally punishing on the tackle.
The pick of the Wairarapa-Bush forwards though was blindside flanker Sam Henderson, whose support play in attacking situations was outstanding and who also had a high workrate on defence.
The Wairarapa-Bush backs did not have as many chances as they would have liked to display their running skills, which was unfortunate for their side as they were clearly a class above their King Country counterparts in that area.
Both halfbacks used, James Bruce and Hamish McKenzie, had strong games, but the standout for his crash tackling was centre Simanu Simanu. He made several big hits during the course of the match. Also defending stoutly after coming off the reserve bench and moving into second-five was Tommy Harmon.
Wairarapa-Bush picked up an extra bonus point for scoring four tries, these going to Esava Teko, Simanu Simanu, Jorgi Tamani and Joe Harwood. Patrick Rimene kicked three conversions and one penalty. Tallon and Alofa scored tries for King Country and Tallon also managed four penalties and two conversions.
Wairarapa-Bush, who now sit second on the competition table, play third placed South Canterbury in Masterton next Saturday and are also at home to Thames Valley the following weekend.