Playing his finest match of 2022, No8 Joe Edwards took it upon himself to make the big yards up the middle – he had no idea how important that would later prove.
The home side plays their style of game with Celtic passion, and led by their big front-rowers, as well as scrappy hooker Jack Yarrall, who also picked up a yellow card, enforcer lock Lake Ah-Chong and unbreakable skipper Brad Graham, Marist clawed their way back into the match to trail by 10 at halftime.
Kaierau's desperation on their line in the face of waves of forward smashes saw the penalties mount, and it appeared they had met their Waterloo with 18 minutes to go after both reserve flanker Stu Brosnahan and then lock Matt Ashworth were sinbinned for professional fouls on either side of a Marist penalty try, with Ashworth now gone permanently after a previous yellow card right before halftime.
In the first round of games, it was the last ten minutes against both Marist and Settler's Honey Ngamatapouri that Kaierau fell apart – conceding three tries in each match.
But despite being reduced to 13 men, Kaierau's leaders stepped up.
Edwards made surge after surge to clear the advantage line, and when Kaierau trapped Marist in the ruck some 40m out, Ethan Robinson made a captain's decision to take back the goal kicking from youngster Brook Herewini.
Despite landing only 1-4 previously, Robinson nailed the long-range shot to re-establish a 13-point buffer, while eating up the rest of the clock before Brosnahan could return.
Desperate, Marist threw everything at Kaierau for the last seven minutes, hoping for at least another try to bring in two priceless bonus points.
However, costly dropped ball in the face of committed Kaierau defence left them wanting, now sitting outside the Top 4 with one remaining game at home against Ngamatapouri in a fortnight.
"We've made it a little bit tougher for ourselves today. We just gave them too much of a lead at the start and it was always going to be hard playing catch-up rugby," said Marist coach Travers Hopkins.
"For a lot of that game, the boys played pretty bloody well, but when you give 22-0 for a start, you can't give any team that.
"Credit to Kaierau, they came out fizzing. They had good reason to."
Proud of the fight-back, Hopkins will have to address the lost possessions on third and fourth phases, although the side was unquestionably missing their spine at No9-10 with Rory Gudsell not playing and Rangi Kui recovering from a neck injury.
"I was talking to the coaches on the sideline and it just felt like we were working really hard, doing a lot of good things and then it would be just a loose pass, or a knock on, or a penalty would just go against it," said Hopkins.
For Kaierau co-coach Tony McBride, there was double pride – the side playing to their potential in the first quarter, and then with courage in the face of adversity during the last.
"The discipline's still something that we're going to have to work on, especially around the ruck area.
"We've talked a lot about it at training that once the ruck is set up to just leave it alone, we're just getting over-anxious and getting our hands in there because we're so desperate.
"They stuck to the plans for the first 20 – kept the intensity up, lot of communication, guys working off the ball - which is our key word this year, that urgency."
McBride agreed Edwards was the standout – his will to win undeniable.
"I think all of the leaders really stepped up today in that team. He had a strong game, the best he's played all season.
"I think Jack [van Bussel] really shored up in the scrimmaging area. The scrum, besides one, was pretty even, and we worked on that at training quite a bit.
"But also Pinky [lock Josh Lane] again, he got hurt right at the beginning, and he just carried on playing all the way through – that was great to see as well."
Kaierau 32 (J Lane, T Pulemagafa, H Unsworth, T Kemp, E Robinson tries; Robinson pen, con, B Herewini con) bt Marist 19 (J Nepia, B Graham tries, penalty try; D Kauika con). HT: 22-12.
