North Otago finally awoke from its first half slumber to score four second half tries in the final 40 minutes and move clearly into second place in the Heartland competition behind Buller with a 41-26 win over Wairarapa-Bush after trailing 13-19 at halftime.
Wairarapa-Bush had the better of the first half with its forward pack led by flankers John Van Vliet and James Goodger dominating the break down and inside backs Inia Katia at halfback and a very able Trent Vatselias at first five eight calling the tactical shots.
But North Otago co coach, Barry Matthews was full of praise for the North Otago scrum.
“I thought that Rob Mafile’o scrummed outstandingly well. He was called on this week after usual tight head Palenapa Mafi was side-lined because of sickness. We knew that Wairarapa Bush had a very good scrum but you could almost say that we dominated the scrums for the first 60 minutes at least.”
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The history between North Otago and Wairarapa-Bush goes back to 1972 when the two unions Wairarapa and Bush combined but prior to that, the first encounter for North Otago was 74 years ago in1937 when North Otago, on a North Island tour, met Wairarapa in Masterton with North Otago taking the initial encounter,19-16.
The North Otago team that day was S Easton, G McKenzie, D Gillies, J Borrie, T Dwyer, R Hunt, R Hammill, W Watts, H Carrington, J Easton, B Watson,R Miller, E Strachan, H Carrodus, R Ludemann and A Brown.
Two years later Wairarapa travelled to Oamaru to beat North Otago, 12-11 and there was then no contact between the two sides until 1954 when North Otago beat the tourists,18-9 with winger Jimmy Lauder getting hat trick of tries and first five eighth Murray McCulloch, two, and Maurie Collings adding a penalty.
1955 saw North Otago go on a North Island tour beating Bush in Pahiatua, 11-8 with Graham Cowie, Jock Hamilton and Laurie Tempero scoring tries and Terry Perriam converting one of the tries.
Ten days later after having played Wanganui and Taranaki in between, North Otago went down to Wairarapa, 6-13, with Alistair Robinson and Hamilton scoring unconverted tries.
There was then a break on 17 years before the two sides met again in 1972 with the newly formed Wairarapa-Bush union taking the game 26-11 with Doug Hurst and Gary Ford scoring tries for North Otago and Norman McKenzie kicking a penalty goal.
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North Otago moved into second place in the Heartland championship on point’s differential behind Wanganui with a convincing 52-17 win over East Coast at Whitestone Contracting stadium on Saturday. North Otago coming off a second rate performance last week against Poverty Bay was determined to show it was a one off effort and virtually had the game won after ten minutes when it raced out to a 21-0 lead. The game was however marred by the ordering off of East Coast captain Rua Tipoki in the 22nd minute for punching North Otago tight head prop Palenapa Mafi during a confrontation following a scrum on the North Otago 22. North Otago led 40-10 at halftime but in the second spell the game deteriorated as a spectacle as referee James Munro allowed the East Coast players free rein around the breakdowns and rucks as they attempted to slow down or kill possession for North Otago.
North Otago co coach Barry Matthews was left with mixed feelings. “We played very well under duress. I think what was allowed to happen was shocking. The off the ball play went unnoticed by the referee and I thought our boys showed a lot of restraint in not lowering themselves to that level. They played very well in the first half and we got two tries from set play moves that we had practised. The scrum still struggled a bit but the lineouts were better and at the contact there was improvement but the boys know they’ll come up against better opposition than we had today. The refereeing in the first 20 minutes of the second half simply blew us off the paddock. I don’t usually comment on the referees but I thought this afternoon he was shocking. The first half for us was outstanding. We’d said before the game that this game would define our season. If we could get five points we could go forward.”
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North Otago had to survive a late charge from Poverty Bay to hold on for a 30 all draw in Heartland rugby on Saturday after leading 20-13 at halftime and five minutes into the second half extending that lead to 27-13. The home side roared back in the final 14 minutes with three tries and it was only a duffed conversion by Poverty Bays first five eighth, Kahu Tamatea in the 80th minute that saved North Otago.
North Otago co coach Barry Matthews thought that overall it was an improved performance from the previous week.
“Yes it was to be honest apart from our defence. Our tackling was away too high. I thought that at halftime turning around with a seven point lead we looked ok especially in the first seven minutes but then we lost our line speed and our defence wasn’t good. Our one on one tackles were just too high. Our forwards gave a much improved display. I thought that the breakdown was a lot better but to be fair the Poverty Bay backs scored some very good tries at the end.”
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