By Gary Caffell
Discipline will be crucial for Carterton and Greytown as they do battle in what should be a tense, exciting final of the Wairarapa-Bush Rugby Union’s Tui Cup premier division competition at Memorial Park, Masterton tomorrow.
Every man, woman and dog is predicting there will be precious little between the two sides at the game’s end and if that is the case goal kicking could decide which of the two grab the major prize.
Carterton’s first string kicker Andy Humberstone demonstrated his value when he scored all his team’s points, including two long range penalties, with the boot in their 12-6 semifinal victory over a brave Gladstone last weekend.
Greytown have the luxury of two goal kickers of outstanding ability, wing Abe Southey and utility back Glen Walters. Between them they would have anything inside opposition territory pretty well covered.
Defence too will play a huge part in the competition decider. The fact they are playing on the artificial turf guarantees the footing will be ideal for the two teams to adopt their usual attacking approach and both sides are well capable of turning any line breaks into tries. Therefore the sureness of the tackling will be of paramount importance.
It’s hard to imagine either forward pack gaining any measure of supremacy, particularly in the set pieces. In Gareth van Dalen, Regan Pope and Marcus Ale, Greytown have proven performers at lineout time and the same could be said of Carterton through the McFadzean brothers, Johnie and Lachie, and Francis Muller. In scrummaging both sides are led by men thoroughly versed in that art, Carterton by Jacko Hull and Greytown by Kurt Simmonds.
In mobility too there is a very even look about the two packs, Ale and the two Isaacs, Tana and Tavita, leading the way in the loose for Greytown and the McFadzeans and Morgan Buckingham for Carterton.
The backlines are a good mix of solidity and flair. The inside combinations, Daryl Pickering and Jono Hurley for Carterton, and Hamish Meyrick and Kingi Kaiwai, provide the solidity factor while the flair will come out wider, from Humberstone, Carlos Rimene and Corey McFadzean for Carterton and Walters, Southey and Nick Olson for Greytown.
It will be interesting to see what effect, if any, the later start time of 4.15pm will have on the match. It probably means a good part of it will be played under lights and it wouldn’t surprise if the crowd numbers start to diminish early because of people leaving for Wellington where the Super 15 semifinal between the Hurricanes and Chiefs will kick off around 7.30pm.
Three other finals will precede the big game, beginning with the President’s Cup senior reserve plate match between Puketoi and Pioneer Old Boys at 11am. The Hodder Steffert Cup premier division plate final at 12.45pm will feature Eketahuna and East Coast and will be marked by a minute’s silence in honour of former Eketahuna, and Wairarapa-Bush, lock Stu Smith, who passed away after a long battle with motor neuron disease. Then at 2.30pm will come the Ryan Cup senior reserve championship final between Pioneer and Tuhirangi.
Discipline key to Tui Cup success
