AJ Manley scoring a try for Greytown against Carterton. PHOTO/JADE CVETKOV
By Gary Caffell
Greytown and Martinborough had reason to celebrate after their wins when matches in the Wairarapa-Bush Tui Cup premier division competition continued on Saturday.
For Greytown their 23-18 win over Carterton at Carterton guaranteed them a home semi-final in two weeks time while Martinborough’s 72-5 pasting of East Coast sealed a semi-final spot for them.
Competition leader Gladstone, who had already booked a home semi, chalked up their 11th win in 13 games when they trounced Marist 56-7 at Gladstone, a result which ended any hopes Marist had of making the top four, and Pioneer picked up an important 29-12 victory over Eketahuna at Eketahuna.
With the last of the preliminary round matches being played next weekend Pioneer now sit fourth on 37pts, 4pts ahead of Carterton.
Their matches next weekend will decide their semi-final fate, Pioneer confronting Gladstone and Carterton up against Marist.
To leap frog Pioneer Carterton would need to pick up the maximum 5pts for a win and four or more tries and Pioneer would need to come out of their game without any points to show for their efforts
Carterton gave Greytown plenty to think about in Saturday’s match but would be ruing the fact that while they had the edge in territory and possession, particularly in the first half, they failed to convert enough of their scoring opportunities into points on the board.
Experienced first-five Kingi Kaiwai had a fine game for Greytown, directly play shrewdly and playing a big part in two of their three tries which were scored by AJ Manley, Raymond Oakley and Nick Olson.
The latter also kicked a penalty and a conversion and Abe Southey added a penalty.
Lance Stevenson and Hone Vella scored tries for Carterton and Daryl Pickering kicked two penalties and a conversion.
Pioneer scored three tries to one to lead Eketahuna 15-5 at halftime and then had to withstand some heavy Eketahuna pressure through the opening 20 minutes of the second half.
However, the home team could not add to their tally and it was Pioneer who scored the first points of this half with a converted try to go out to a 22-5 advantage and while Eketahuna hit back with a converted try of their own Pioneer also had the last say with another converted try to win comfortably at 29-12.
Their try scorers were Jonte Miller, Himiona Haira, Stacey Rewai, Duane Fricker and Karl Thompson.
Gladstone ran in 10 tries in their big 56-7 win over Marist with Cameron Hayton scoring three of them.
Others went to Brad Griffith (2), Inia Katia (2) C.Renwick and Eddie Cranston (2).
Ayden Eurere scored the only Marist try.
No scoring details were available from the Martinborough v East Coast match.
Competition points: Gladstone 52, Greytown 48, Martinborough 40, Pioneer 37, Carterton 33, Marist 29, Eketahuna 28, East Coast 6.
Senior reserve results from Saturday: Masterton Red Star 49, Puketoi 14; Tuhirangi 30, Martinborough 23; Carterton 34, Greytown 14; Featherston 45, Pioneer 15; Greytown 25, Marist 10; Eketahuna beat East Coast by default.
