A seven-man scrum with Whanganui’s reserve players did well to hold up the Centurions pack, but pressure to move the ball with defenders in their faces saw the backs make a few handling errors, and the home side turned the weight of possession in their attacking half into two more converted tries to take the match away.
When back to their full complement, Whanganui still competed well, just missing out on their fourth try when they were held up on the line, but ultimately it had been a tough ask against a squad with a longer and deeper club season, a solid Lions development programme, and more representative fixtures under their belts.
Among the positives, it was great to see halfback Lindsay Horrocks return and he wasted no time in taking over the directional aspects of the team and being active around the breakdown - even yelling instructions when he was on the bottom of the ruck after being tackled.
Horrocks worked with first five Brook Tremayne in his first hitout, taking the kicks and - while officially only slotting one from three - his first conversion attempt seemed to curl inside the post, according to the eyes on the sideline and even the referee, but the two touch judges thought differently.
Flanker Doug Horrocks was back and did a lot of work, while second five Timoci Seruwalu had a hand in plenty of attacking plays and line breaks, a few loose passes late in the piece notwithstanding.
Try-scoring centre Josaia Bogileka and leading carrier at No 8 Josefa Namosimalua were having good matches until their yellow cards.
Whanganui had only one injury concern when lock Matt Ashworth came off early in the second half after copping an accidental knee to the head.
Strong for the home side was flanker George Risale, while the Centurions found another gear when reserve backs Louis Northcott and Ethan Webster-Nonu, the son of All Blacks legend Ma’a Nonu, entered the fray.
As well as ruck infringements, Whanganui got pulled up for a couple of line balls as they looked to crack the Centurions defence, coach Jason Hamlin taking a quick conference with the official after the match.
“Wanting to get his view around the tackle area and his view on what we were getting pinged for and his interpretation,” Hamlin said.
“Trying to get that squared away for ourselves going forward, then we can show the video to the players, saying ‘this is what the higher refs are going to be looking at’.
“It’s not just trying to win a penalty - players are wanting the ball.
“Everything we wanted out of this game is what we got - a good, physical contest, played at a good pace.
“We’re having to perform under pressure, and then [there were] lost passes when we’re doing really well, and other parts we have to improve on that.
“The benefits out of it is the boys are playing a higher quality of footy, that’s better than we would have had in Whanganui club footy for the past two seasons, by a mile.
“We can contend with this, they can compete at this level, it’s about conditioning ourselves to go for long periods of time and be patient a little bit more.
“When we did score some tries, we were really accurate, and we probably gave up a couple of opportunities, and we had one held up right on the line at the end.
“But we created the space that we wanted to, and that’s by doing all the little things we spoke about, and they’re getting there.”
Whanganui used their veteran players for longer periods, but Hamlin still had praise for the young props Konradd Newland and Emmanualle Wineera - the latter backing up from playing Thursday night’s game for the McFall Fuel Whanganui Development XV.
Now with Thames Valley looming in the Bunnings Warehouse Heartland Championship opener, this week will be all about fine-tuning the basics.
“The first 10 minutes, the mistakes we made were all fixable stuff,” said Hamlin.
“We didn’t put a kick out, threw passes that didn’t need to be thrown, we manipulated their defence where we wanted them but we just didn’t execute it enough.
“That decision-making under pressure will get better and better, and that’s what it’s about.”
Centurions 33 (Joe Faleafaga, Kaliopasi Uluilakepa, Zane Ainslie, Ethan Webster-Nonu, Luamafe Lualua; Alex Ropeti 3 con, Louis Northcott con) bt Whanganui 17 (Gabriel Hakaraia, Josaia Bogileka, Josh Lane tries; Brook Tremayne con). HT: 19-12.
