Roman Tutauha felt much better at the weekend as he went in to score for Whanganui Maori against Manawatu Maori at Spriggens Park.
Roman Tutauha felt much better at the weekend as he went in to score for Whanganui Maori against Manawatu Maori at Spriggens Park.
It was hoped to be a positive way for several saddened players to sign off their season, but it turned into a festival of attacking rugby.
The Whanganui Maori side, with their seven recruits from the Steelform Wanganui squad beaten in last weekend's Meads Cup semifinal, ran riot at Spriggens Park on Saturday in a 102-0 destruction of an understrength Manawatu Maori squad.
While cricket games around the township were rained off, the Whanganui team were well on their way to a cricket score at 59-0 by halftime, and coming into the 70th minute with the century raised on the scoreboard, referee Ben Lourie mercifully blew an early fulltime whistle.
Whanganui Maori claimed the Miki Haddon Memorial taonga for the first time after it was introduced last season, with Manawatu Maori winning it at Cooks Gardens 19-17.
This match had been originally scheduled for October 6 in Palmerston North, but when Whanganui could not field a full team, it was rescheduled to this weekend, originally intended as a curtain raiser for a home Meads Cup final which never happened.
Hopes that certain Manawatu Turbos players may join their Maori brethren for the one-off festive game proved disappointedly unfounded, because while the Manawatu Maori were very generous to move the game, they could only bring the bare starting XV with them, made up predominantly of club level players and promising youths.
Meanwhile, Whanganui began with only three reserves, all of them quality backs, but eventually had five players on the bench with a couple of late arrivals, including the Wanganui Heartland captain Roman Tutauha himself after a slow, wet trip over the Parapara highway.
Tutauha joined a strong contingent from the previous weekend's Wanganui team in Jamie Hughes, Dane Whale, Ethan Robinson, Tremaine Gilbert, Tyler Rogers-Holden and Gabriel Hakaraia, not to mention other players who played Heartland like captain Jack Hodges.
They used rotating substitutions, while Manawatu were reduced to 13 men at one point before halftime with two sinbinnings, one for rough play and the other a professional foul for deliberately knocking down a likely tryscoring pass.
Already 50 points down by that stage, Manawatu would have rather conceded a penalty try and kept their player on the field, but Lourie stuck firmly to the rule book from start to finish.
Robinson dominated the first half in partnership with first-five Whale and fellow midfielder Troy Brown – running through wide open gaps to set up multiple breakout tries from inside their own half.
Troy Brown going in for his second try.
Manawatu's defensive wall was very flimsy, rarely getting in the right position or with players just falling off tackles, as Whanganui reserve fullback Rogers-Holden and others like winger CJ Stowers took over where Robinson left off in the second stanza.
Hughes showed Manawatu what it meant to be assertive and aggressive on defence.
Hodges could never have predicted before the match that his team would score 16 tries, converting 11.
"It's just a good way to end the season and end it on a high.
"And in typical Maori fashion, we had a bit of fun with it.
"Both teams before the start were hesitant. [But] the bench was getting full as we were playing."
Before the structure broke down and became more individual-based in the fourth quarter, Whanganui applied the same basic framework in which players had found success in the Heartland and Wanganui Development XV campaigns.
"Just used the core there, things from Heartland and just carried on," said Hodges.
Maori captain Jack Hodges capped off an excellent representative season personally with two tires.
Coach Dennis Tucker was most impressed with the players commitment, with many of them driving further than the Palmerston North-based side did, while emotionally having to pick themselves up off the floor after the shock of the Meads Cup semifinal defeat.
"The boys fronted up, that was awesome.
"They travelled so far, 90 per cent of the team were Raetihi and Taihape.
"It says a lot as a team. They played as a team and it showed."
Whanganui's backs put the ball through the hands with talented winger Shaq Waara getting the last offload on the tryline to put the ball down, Robinson getting the conversion off the timber.
Moments later, they were back as Robinson ran through the middle of the park and had runners on each side, putting fullback Sheldon Pakinga-Manhire over for 14-0 in eight minutes.
Whale figured the midfield was the weak spot and he likewise glided through, finding Brown inside to put on the gas under the posts.
Manawatu made basic mistakes like dropped ball and putting a free kick dead in-goal, and Whanganui counterattacked one breakdown in the opposition half for Hodges to dash off for a try.
Brown combined with winger Jaye Flaws out wide, and then accepted the pass back inside to bulldoze through two weak tackles and get his double.
Flaws was soon at it again as he ranged wide and this time Gilbert took the offload and put Hughes over the tryline.
It was all Ruapehu for the seventh try as Hughes slipped through from a midfield ruck and put Tutauha under the posts, with the prop Hakaraia insisting of taking the conversion.
Not to be out-done by their forwards, the backline uncorked a great try as Robinson rang around the outside defence and offloaded a great pass to Brown, who fed Pakinga-Manhire to just tease his three chasers with a canter to the tryline, which raised the half century in 32 minutes.
Whanganui scored again against 13 men before the halftime break as Whale took the pass from a 5m scrum and stepped inside, holding off his tackler long enough to give Waara a double with the inside ball.
Robinson took a breather but the backline still flowed as halfback Cameron Davies linked with Brown, who flicked the ball to a fresh Stowers to step one defender and dragged the next over.
Desperate, Manawatu would try an attacking kick if they didn't get a line break within a couple of phases, and one bomb fell right to Rogers-Holden, who took off and ran 80m back the other way to score the second try in six minutes of resumption.
Gilbert provided reserve winger Corey Carmichael with a great pass to run out from his half, finding Whale in support who transferred the ball to Hodges to dash in for another double.
The rout continued as Rogers-Holden found another gap and despite having four support runners, the Manawatu defenders couldn't keep up so he just kept going for 83-0.
Whanganui then had to absorb some rare pressure, with Stowers making a try-saving tackle and then the forwards getting the turnover from a penalty lineout drive.
Everyone was looking to score now, and eventually Hughes popped the ball up to Hakaraia after he regained it from Manawatu diving on a Stowers chip kick, and the big prop sold the defence a sweet dummy to dive across, although he lost his perfect goal-kicking record.
Whanganui then came back together as Brown ran through the middle of the park then offloaded to Tutauha, who spread the ball to Waara, stepping inside and putting Carmichael over the line for 93-0.
Right from the kickoff, Tutauha ran straight through another yawning hole, finding Carmichael in support, and after thinking about going all the way, he relented and offloaded to lock Josh Lane to get just reward for playing the full match with a try, which he also converted.
Whanganui Maori 102 (Shaquille Waara 2, Sheldon Pakinga-Manhire 2, Troy Brown 2, Jack Hodges 2, Tyler Rogers-Holden 2, Jamie Hughes, Roman Tutauha, Clive Stowers, Gabriel Hakaraia, Corey Carmichael, Josh Lane tries; Ethan Robinson 7 con, Rogers-Holden 2 con, Hakaraia con, Lane con) bt Manawatu Maori 0. HT: 59-0.
Both teams pose with the Miki Haddon Memorial taonga, which will be staying in Whanganui for the summer.
