Marist prop Ryan Hargood crashes over for a try against Greytown last Saturday. PHOTO/JADE CVETKOV
By Gary Caffell
There will be some intriguing match ups when games in the Wairarapa-Bush Rugby Union’s premier competition continue on Saturday.
The feature clash will be that between Gladstone and Greytown at Gladstone, with both teams looking to protect their unbeaten records.
Providing an extra incentive for Gladstone will be the fact they will be celebrating their old timers’ day, and their usual army of supporters should be swelled further as a consequence.
Pioneer, which has also started their season well with two wins and a draw, will come up against Marist in the local derby at Memorial Park.
Visiting Horowhenua-Kapiti referee Matt Clark will be in charge.
Marist came close to toppling Greytown last weekend and a victory here certainly can’t be discounted.
Carterton will host Martinborough and also celebrate their old timers’ day at the same time.
Referee Graeme Reisima will be controlling his 199th premier division club game.
Eketahuna have just come up short in their three matches to date and they will be looking to chalk up their first win of the season when they meet East Coast at Eketahuna.
East Coast too have yet to break their “duck” and showed enough improvement in their loss to Pioneer last weekend to suggest this won’t be all one-way traffic.
There was much chat pre-season about the strength of the Masterton Red Star premier reserves in 2017 and they kicked off with a huge 97-5 defeat of Featherston last weekend.
However, they can expect much stiffer opposition when they play last season’s champions, Tuhirangi, in the Memorial Park No.1 curtain-raiser on Saturday.
DRAW
Premier division: Eketahuna v East Coast, Eketahuna at 2.30pm (Chris Jefferies; Goff Moorcock and Breck Stewart); Marist v Pioneer, Memorial Park at 2.30pm (Matt Clark; Tom Roseingrave and Pera Larsen); Carterton v Martinborough, Carterton at 2.30pm (Graeme Reisima; Vaea Peterson and Pat Baucke); Gladstone v Greytown, Gladstone at 2.30pm (Alistair Payne; Andrew Stringer and Gary Hall).
Premier reserves: Marist v Pioneer, Memorial Park 2 at 1pm (Pera Larsen; Pete Semmens and home team); Carterton v Martinborough, Carterton at 1pm (Pat Baucke; Vaea Peterson and Logan Wakefield); Gladstone v Greytown, Gladstone at 1pm (Andrew Stringer; Gary Hall and Kelly Lochhead); Masterton Red Star v Tuhirangi, Memorial Park No.1 at 1pm (Tom Roseingrave; Kaleb Rowlands and home team); Featherston v Puketoi, Featherston at 2.30pm (Dean Goodin; John Dyckhoff and home team).
A Wairarapa-Bush secondary schools pre-season tournament will be played at Memorial Park on Wednesday, May 3 with all games to be played over one half of 35mins duration. The draw for the first round is: Makoura first XV v Rathkeale second XV at 4.20pm (Gary Hall); Makoura first XV v Wairarapa third XV at 5pm (Ryan Hardman); Rathkeale second XV v Wairarapa third XV at 5.40pm (Pete Semmens); Rathkeale first XV v Wairarapa second XV at 6.20pm (Jaymon Huang); Kuranui first XV v Wairarapa second XV at 7pm (Atene Karauria); Kuranui first XV v Rathkeale first XV at 7.40pm (Vaea Peterson).
