Northern derby rugby returns to WRFU Premier
By Jared Smith
After a full season of regretful absence, the WRFU’s northern derby is back in Tasman Tanning Premier, as Byford’s Readimix Taihape kicked off 2023 with a comfortable 45-10 win over a game McCarthy’s Transport Ruapehu on Saturday.
Ruapehu’s lineup for their return to Premier was predominately the young stages and club veterans who got them to the Senior Division 1 final last year, augmented by the return home of Steelform Whanganui front rowers Roman Tutauha and Gabriel Hakaraia, who were key imports last year for Taihape in their march to the Premier final.
Their departure aside, Taihape has retained the core of their overall strong squad, with former Whanganui prop Hadlee Hay-Horton back home to rejoin his incumbent representative brothers in Slade and Peter-Travis in the pack.
The notable adjustment for the 2022 runner-up’s is former Whanganui representative winger Jaye Flaws having completed a full-circle transition and now packing down between the Hay-Horton’s as the new hooker.
Flaws would score the seasons’ opening try from a forwards drive at the line, while the other noteworthy addition to a proven pack is hard running Fijian No8 Yaca Savuro, who scored a try in each half.
Savuro is the standout amongst a group of about half-a-dozen honey workers new to the region who have joined the club, joining the ranks of both their Premier and Senior teams.
Indeed, it was having strike weapons that proved the difference between the neighbours, with Taihape’s 35-point buffer not necessarily a reflection of the competitiveness of the encounter.
Ruapehu, in signature style, were able to compete well at the breakdown and around the set-piece, with the lineouts being difficult in windy conditions.
However, they did not have the strike power to exploit momentum with consistent line-breakers, whereas Taihape’s maestro Dane Whale knew if he could work the ‘slippery eel’ winger Tiari Mumby or Whanganui fullback Tyler Rogers-Holden into space then tries were on the offing.
Mumby set up centre Tawake Vuetibau scoring in the corner in the second half and could have done the same a couple more times if the final pass went to hand.
He then got his own try from out-of-nowhere when he ducked under Ruapehu cover tacklers and dashed away to the corner.
Try-scoring flanker Regan Collier and his blindside partner Beau Walker had solid games, while for Ruapehu as expected it was Tutauha and Hakaraia who carried the can, alternating between hitups, cleanouts and short-ball offloads off the ruck.
Other standouts on cover defence and in the lineout were lock Hamish McKay and industrious flanker Jack Kinder, who had been a contender for club season MVP two years ago when Ruapehu were last in Premier, but work commitments took him north when the representative campaign began.
The only big concern for new Taihape coach Sefo Bourke was the unfortunate injury to reserve forward Hoani Woodhead, a fixture of the squad’s matchday 22 over recent seasons, who dislocated his kneecap midway through the second half.
The game was delayed and ultimately moved over to the No2 ground, with Woodhead receiving medical attention as his knee was reset, and he was eventually able to be helped off the field after fulltime.
“It’s a bugger because we are a bit short,” said Bourke.
Stepping up to coach the Premier team after a couple of years with the Senior squad, Bourke was happy with the first up effort.
“It’s been good, me and my assistant coach BJ, we’ve had to go away and work on what we needed to bring into this environment, being an established [team].
“But what we wanted from the start of the season and through pre-season was buy-in from our senior players, and that’s what we’ve got, straight from the start, and that’s made life a lot easier.”
The work-on’s coming out of the game will be the breakdown area, as Ruapehu were able to secure several penalties and turnovers, especially leading up to their sole try.
“They really tested us. At halftime we talked about our ball being quite messy at that stage, so I’m glad we tidied that up and scored a few points in the second half.
“We need to get a little bit tighter, but I’m happy with the performance, happy that our big names got 80-odd minutes and good to see some of the young fellas get some minutes that they not have got last year.”
Unlike some WRFU fixtures between neighbours, the Taihape vs Ruapehu clashes have always been marked with respect, and Bourke was pleased to see the mountain men back in the top grade.
“It’s good to have that derby, obviously missed it last year with the boys being in Senior.
“We were up for today and so were they, and we’re really proud of the effort the boys put in, especially against the old [veterans].”
Back coaching the side he guided in the early 2010’s, Ruapehu’s Andrew Evans will be looking for increasing commitment as he squad adjusts to being back in the top grade.
“It’s been a bit rushed probably, the first month, trying to get a few numbers together and a couple of key positions sorted.
“Front row has probably been short, all around the union, so we’re no different there.
“But all in all, from what they are, they’ve improved a hell of a lot, so we’re really rapt with that at the moment.
“We’ve got a long ways to go, but we’re building each week.”
A club signature is their eagerness at the breakdown – Ruapehu can win back their share of possession, it’s making sure they do something with it.
“That’s probably for the rugby IQ for the newer guys, the young guys that probably need to learn by a little bit of experience to take those opportunities when we’ve got them so we can capitalise on when we do those good things like turnover.”
Evans welcomed back Tutauha and Hakaraia, as well as Kinder, who will be so key to this rebuild.
“I know it’s been a little bit hard for a couple of them to come back, me and Peter [Rowe] are really proud of that, because our club won’t survive if they don’t do something like that.”
It was Ruapehu who made the early running as a box kick from their 2022 Whanganui halfback Kahl Elers-Green took a kind bounce on the lush green pitch for chasing winger Corey Carmichael, with the visitors getting a ruck penalty shortly afterwards for first-five Logan Blackburn to put them ahead.
Ruapehu contested hard at the breakdown, making Taihape work for their metres as Flaws and Mumby were stopped just short of the tryline.
But the weight of possession eventually told as a penalty led to an attacking lineout, with Flaws diving off the back of the pack drive to score.
Hakaraia managed to twist Savuro over the tryline to stop him getting the ball down, but his Ruapehu team mates soon learned that Premier needs a higher acumen for second phase moments.
Near their line, two defenders rushed up to hammer Flaws and lift him backwards, but the ball fell for halfback James Barrett to feed Savuro, who was able to charge right through the wide gap left in the line to dive under the posts for 12-3.
Ruapehu would have been encouraged to go to halftime still in contention, but Taihape made a rocket restart with Savuro powering over for his double, Whale adding the extras for 19-3 less than five minutes after resumption.
They followed up immediately as following a quick lineout from a Ruapehu clearance, the ball went to the far touch for Mumby to charge through and although three diving defenders dragged him down, he offloaded for Vuetibau to get his first WRFU Premier try.
Whale slotted an excellent sideline conversion and at 26-3 in the 50th minute, Ruapehu had no pathway back.
Woodhead’s injury shortly afterwards saw a pause to the game before it was transferred to the No2 pitch, where despite Tutauha making a big 40m charge down the far touchline, Taihape worked back into position, where Whale’s pass put Vuetibau through the gap, and from the ruck recycle, Collier snatched up the ball and fended through the last defender to score.
Ruapehu, to their credit, did not go into their shells, and aided by a succession of ruck penalties, their forwards rumbled to the tryline, with Hakaraia all-but scoring, then from the breakdown, fullback Keaton Norling got his steam up to come flying onto Elers-Green’s pass and dive low to score for 31-10.
It might have been a fair reflection of the game if the scoreline stayed there, but Taihape showed the ruthlessness to finish a Premier game strong.
In the last six minutes, Mumby took Rogers-Holden’s pass and just ducked through a wall of defenders to turn on the gas and score out by the far side, and then Rogers-Holden attacked down the nearer touch and fed reserve winger Leva Galusaluqaqa, who showed a clean-pair of heels to run away from the cover tacklers, with Whale converting on fulltime.
Taihape 45 (Y Savuro 2, J Flaws, T Vuetibau, R Collier, T Mumby, L Galusaluqaqa tries; D Whale 5 con)
bt Ruapehu 10 (K Norling try; L Blackburn pen, con)
HT: 12-3.
