Border lift Challenge Shield as injury ends game with Taihape early

By Jared Smith

The celebrations were certainly muted and subdued at Dallison Park on Saturday as Waverley Harvesting Border held back Byford’s Readimix Taihape 14-5 to lift the Barracks Bar Challenge Shield.

The match appeared to be heading to another classic grandstand finish between the two old rivals, but with six minutes remaining, promising young Border lock Logan Kingi stayed down after a low tackle, and remained motionless – being tended to by club members and supporters for a neck injury.

Although aware of his surroundings and communicating with his attendees and family, the 2022 Whanganui Under 20’s representative could not be moved and needed his neck to be supported.

An ambulance was called and after a considerable delay, referee Robbie Clark was left with no option but to call fulltime due to player safety.

It was over an hour before an ambulance could arrive at Dallison Park, with Kingi’s team mates having time to shower and change before waiting with him on the field.

Although rugby took a back seat to concern for the youngster, it has left a feeling of unfinished business for both sides.

Border through their veteran playmakers Craig Clare and Lindsay Horrocks were able to tactically kick expertly on their home turf – Clare coolly slotting three penalties after missing the conversion to their sole try from rampaging centre Alekesio Vakarorogo midway through the first half.

As well as kicks, Border looked to move wide on Taihape similar to how Wanganui Car Centre Kaierau had managed the week before – the Symes brothers in Tom and Harry looking dangerous on the wings, the latter unlucky not be awarded a try when play was called back for Vakarorgo putting a foot in touch before offloading to him.

The flankers Kieran Hussy and co-captain Angus Middleton gave a typically spirited effort, as they had in last year’s Tasman Tanning Premier grand final between the teams – Middleton needling Taihape to the point an altercation led to the visitors losing a ruck penalty and instead giving Clare the opportunity to boot his side into a 14-0 lead in the second half.

However, having played without traction and given away a succession of penalties at ruck time, Taihape were finally starting to get a roll-on inside the last quarter, although dropped ball was hindering them, with makeshift hooker Luke Whale scoring in the corner with about 12 minutes left.

Returning winger Tim Goodwin came in-field to act more like a centre – his preferred position –  and had a hand in some promising attacks from the shield-holders as they started to claw their way back.

With Border having subbed their starting front rowers, the Hay-Horton’s in Hadlee and Slade stayed on a little longer to give their side the advantage at scrum time, while the third brother in lock Peter-Travis was looking for offloads around the fringes.

Earlier, when Taihape were struggling to get traction in a 10-man style territory game, their standouts were hard-running No8 Yaca Savuro and busy fullback Aaron Chapman, who had to do a lot of work in the back field with Border’s chasers coming at him.

Nonetheless, nearing fulltime Taihape were keeping Border in their own half and likely had a scrum feed coming for lost ball when Kingi was injured near the halfway.

“Obviously it’s a disappointing finish to the game with five minutes or so left,” said Border coach Todd Cowan.

“But at least he’s conscious and talking, hoping that it’s just precautionary stuff.

“It was definitely a ding-dong battle and we knew it was going to be like that with Taihape, they’re really physical and we took a bit of onus on ourselves this week to make sure we were physical as well and match it up front.

“A bit of a war, but I don’t think either team had the upper hand, back and forth kind of game.”

Kingi’s injury means Border have lost three significant forwards in as many games.

“Looking forward to the bye next week, to be fair, freshen the boys up,” said Cowan.

“ Three games in and every game’s pretty physical and every team’s out there to try and cement their spot in the table, so the bye’s come at a good time for us.”

Taihape coach Sefo Bourke knew his side had given Border too much of a piggy-back with the infringements.

“I thought we played well in the first 20-odd minutes, maybe even 25-30 minutes, but we just couldn’t ice those opportunities in the first half, especially because we dropped the ball, and there was a couple of turnover penalties.

“If we held onto those balls we may have scored, I’m not going to say we would have, but we definitely would have made the game a bit more interesting.

“The rest of the game, [Border] played their game and we got blown off the park with silly penalties really.

“We knew they were going to kick a lot, especially with Chock [Clare] at second-five and Lindsay at the base of the scum.

“I thought our young fella [Chapman] at the back handled that fairly well.

“I thought we nullified that side of their game a little bit, but them getting into good territory and having possession of the ball off the back of our penalties was too much really.”

Bourke was pleased with the efforts of the returning Goodwin, the former Kaierau Senior team player who bet on himself transferring to Taihape and was one of the standouts of the 2022 club season.

“Usually obviously playing at centre, but he’s coming back from his shoulder injury, so it was good for him to get through 80.

“Good signs on the back of the game, from what we saw, we’ll just have to see how this young fella [Kingi] is and we’ll obviously have to talk to the union about what happens now, as there was six minutes to go.”

Taihape had the best attacking chance of the first quarter when halfback James Barrett combined with Goodwin and then first-five Dane Whale to bust Border up the middle, but lost ball at the breakdown allowed Border to coolly clear their territory.

The kicking duel became crucial as Border would get the ball expertly into the corners, whereas some Taihape clearances missed touch, allowing the Symes wingers and fullback Nick Harding to run back into the attacking half.

Border then scored from their first real opportunity, as from an attacking scrum, Vakarorogo got the fend going to force a gap between three cover defenders, and then took off to score.

Taihape tried to get things going, as centre Tawake Vuetibau tried some chip and chase tactics, while winger Tiari Mumby came in to assist the forwards and Savuro was always hard to stop – the difference being now he was attacking from long range and not inside the 22m.

A succession of penalties saw Border took to drive from the lineout, reserve prop Emmanuelle Wineera coming on early to add his weight, and the visitors ended up with a penalty in front of the posts for Clare to put them ahead 8-0 before halftime.

Following the break, a Horrocks dart from a halfway lineout was supported by Tom Symes, and with the Taihape cover tacklers not releasing, Clare had another penalty, and then just a few minutes later, Taihape thought they’d got a ruck penalty to clear their dangerzone, only for an altercation to lead to the reversal and Clare putting his side two converted tries ahead.

From there, with both sides running on their benches, Taihape began to move the ball with urgency and get some momentum, the visitors calling for scrums when they got penalties.

The gap finally opened as Taihape attacked on the clubrooms side of the ground and then swiftly transferred back the other way for Luke Whale, usually an outside back, taking off to dive in at the corner.

But just a few minutes later, play was stopped for Kingi’s injury.

Waverley Harvesting Border 14 (A Vakarorogo try; C Clare 3 pen) bt Byford’s Readimix Taihape 5 (L Whale try). HT: 8-0.