Experience tells: Border hold back Marist in the wet
By Jared Smith
The gap has certainly closed, but big match experience in testing conditions means Waverley Harvesting Border still holds ascendancy over Dave Hoskin Carriers Marist after a physical arm-wrestle at Spriggens Park on Saturday.
In their first match of the Tasman Tanning Premier campaign, with some new and returning faces, Marist were eager to finally tip up one of the ‘Big Two’ clubs, having lost every match to Border since the first round of 2019.
But despite being deadlocked 10-10 at halftime, and then closing the gap to 18-15 in the 64th minute, Marist ill-discipline, handling errors, and the superior game management of Border’s veteran playmakers proved the key for the defending champs to emerge with a hard-fought 24-15 win.
As solid rain covered the ground in the last quarter, the returning Craig Clare at second-five and halfback Lindsay Horrocks put Marist back into their corners with accurate kicking, while in the absence of injured Whanganui prop Keightley Watson, Border had a clear advantage at a scrum-time, picking up a couple of tightheads.
On a day for muddy rugby, play was always going to stagnate from set-piece to set-piece, so whichever team could make the most traction in the 30-40 seconds of action in-between would carry the day.
Marist were also still missing towering lock Brad O’Leary and last season’s breakout first-five Rangi Kui, who will return home during the week after completing their club duties in Ireland.
Jack O’Leary slotted into first-five, and landed two kicks from his four attempts, but again it was Clare who was clutch, slotting five from six attempts including two late penalties in the wet to deny Marist even a bonus point for a hard day’s toil.
In both the scrums and carries, Border got good service out of their props Ranato Tikoisolomone and Hamish Mellow, as well as lock Ngapuke Patea, until a collar-bone injury saw the latter depart after halftime.
Try-scorer Josefa Namosimalua impressed at No8, where Border will need him to fill the shoes of the departed Semi Vodosese, who has left for the Hawke’s Bay, and the injured Bryn Hudson.
For Marist, try-scoring skipper Brad Graham and representative flanker Samu Kubunavanua were strong, the latter on debut for his new club and trying to get across to unsettle Horrocks and the play-makers after the visitor’s dominant scrum wins.
Halfback Winslin Klassen, who started ahead of the established Rory Gudsell, looks like he could have some spark about him, while reserve forward Illi Davatu got into his work when he came on.
New Border coach Todd Cowan knows the days of beating Marist by 40 points or more have ended.
“Definitely tricky conditions, I think the footy today was bad weather stuff like that, so a couple of times there just the bounce of the ball, the roll of the ball went either way.
“So we were lucky to come away with the win today, Marist played bloody well. They’re a very strong side that are going to test some other teams this season.
“They’ll definitely be there or thereabouts towards the tail end of the season, so we’re happy to take our win today against these boys on their home paddock
“There’s plenty of work-on’s for us as well, I won’t be short of anything to look to do at training this week.”
The stop-start nature of the contest did play into Border’s hands, as they showed more composure in the moments when the ball was in play.
“In these conditions you’re going to get a lot more drop ball so there’s going to be a lot more onus on your set piece,” said Cowan.
“We’ve got work to do in these next couple of weeks, so start building.”
Marist coach Travers Hopkins knew they are starting to gain traction on the three-time champions, but the little moments were now making a big difference.
“Days gone by, we were always competitive for 40 minutes, and then come that second half it would just blow out.
“There’s a bit of resolve there now, they’ve got some old heads that show a bit of calmness and a bit of experience.
“But it wasn’t enough today, we didn’t help ourselves at all. When you’ve got someone like Chock [Clare] who can kick them from anywhere – our discipline was terrible, and the kicks we gave him weren’t even hard ones, they were on a plate.
“They just plugged those corners, and credit to them, that’s what we wanted to do.
“Those guys have probably played more Premier rugby than our guys have had cooked dinners – they knew what to do.”
The team had certainly missed Watson come scrum time.
“Credit to Kayden [Shedlock] and Marius [Joseph] that went into that front row, they did their best, but really looking forward to getting him back and shoring that up, because that was just easy money for [Border] today.
“We also saw a lot of good things – we’ve got a lot of new combinations.
“The defence was good, but we’ve just to learn to close these games out, especially now we’re in the fight.”
After absorbing early pressure, with Border looking to work centre Alekesio Vakarorogo into space, Marist got a couple of penalties to secure an attacking lineout in the corner, with Graham taking the ball and then driving his way through for 7-0 in the 15th minute.
Border were quick to respond, turning over the kickoff then working their way to the posts, and always calling for scrums when they got penalties, which worked as from 5m out, Namosimalua was at the back of his pack’s drive to force his way over.
Clare converted, and then after a long period of back and forth action, Border realised Marist weren’t lying down and so after a succession of ruck penalties, the veteran finally added three points to take the lead in the 32nd minute.
But again, Marist were still in the fight as a late charge from a kick-chase saw O’Leary level the scores just two minutes later, although he could not add another three-pointer just before halftime.
Clare added a go-ahead penalty in the 47th minute, but with Border needing more to get away from Marist, the veteran pulled it out of his bag of tricks.
First, he put Vakarorogo through the gap for a long run, and then from the next phase a cross-kick to the corner was snatched by first-five Tyrone Albert amongst the defenders to dive across in the 57th minute.
But Marist lifted another gear that would have been absent in seasons past, as they shut down Border’s attempt to be expansive and attacked through the carry, getting a couple of penalties, and then second-five Daniel Kauika made a cross kick of his own with three attackers flying into the in-goal, the try credited to the returning Josaia Bogileka.
Yet as the rain set-in, Marist struggled to get further traction as Horrocks and Clare set them back into their corners, winning the territory battle, and it told as infringement saw Clare land a long-range penalty for 21-15, and then with six minutes left he slotted the match-winner from another ruck penalty.
Waverley Harvesting Border 24 (J Namosimalua, T Albert tries; C Clare 4 pen, con) bt Dave Hoskin Carriers Marist 15 (B Graham, J Bogileka tries; Jack O’Leary pen, con). HT: 10-10.
2023 Tasman Tanning Premiers Tableupdated 9.47pm 24/06/2023
| 2023 Tasman Tanning PREMIER | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Waverley Harvesting Border | |||||||||
| Wanganui Car Centre Kaierau | |||||||||
| Byford’s Readimix Taihape | |||||||||
| Dave Hoskin Carriers Marist | |||||||||
| McCarthy’s Transport Ruapehu | |||||||||
