Table leaders Waverley Harvesting Border regain Grand Hotel Challenge Shield.
By Jared Smith
Waverley Harvesting Border have once again turned Dallison Park into a fortress and the Grand Hotel Challenge Shield is sitting behind the highest wall after a 32-18 victory over Wanganui Car Centre Kaierau on Saturday.
After the much anticipated top of the table clash for Tasman Tanning Premier, Border have a break on the rest of the field in the race to finish the round-robin in top spot.
Reminiscent of last year’s semifinal, Kaierau ended up too reactive to the home side and on those precious occasions when they had momentum, made very costly mistakes on the carry – losing the ball in the cover tackle or trying 50-50 offloads that just weren’t coming off.
Turning on the pressure they themselves faced at the Country Club in their only loss this year, Border played with composure and physicality; never rushing and swiftly recovering from errors, even managing to keep Kaierau out for most of the key 11-minute period midway through the second half when they were reduced to 13 with both halfback Lindsay Horrocks (verbal) and reserve lock Sam Madams (professional foul) in the sin bin.
That blemish aside, Horrocks had a majestic game – highlighted by an incredible box kick charge down and full stretch dive to catch the ball and score in the same movement for Border’s bonus point try.
Kaierau’s defence didn’t give Horrocks and playmaker Craig Clare much room to work in the opening 15 minutes, until the former professional Clare showed the young Kaierau players they still have a bit to learn with a brilliant dart and double step to score a smart individual try.
Both Horrocks, Clare, and fullback Nick Harding made Kaierau pay for their handling mistakes with booming clearances, while out wide, centre Alekesio Tikoisolomone was outstanding on cover defence and set up a great try to winger Isaiah Graham-Hooper with a perfect offload.
Lock Jack Hodges and prop Kamipeli Latu showed full aggression and were rewarded for it by dragging tacklers over the line for tries, while once again the king of work-rate was flanker Angus Middleton, who led his side out of the potential crisis of playing with 13 with guile and determination.
For Kaierau, who had injured lock Matt Ashworth watching in the stands and lost goal-kicking winger Shandon Scott to a suspected torn shoulder during Clare’s try, there will have to be a rethink before the playoffs.
First-five Ethan Robinson looked for to create rare opportunities and had the final say with a great individual try on fulltime, while flanker Dylan Bowater took over the extra work in the lineout while producing some strong tackles off the ruck.
Replacing Scott, reserve winger Patrick Hiscox was strong out wide and scored a good try in the corner, while replacement hooker Kohlt Coveny dotted down for the second week in a row with an individual burst to the line while Border were two defenders short.
But far too many others, both starting lineup and off the bench, let the occasion get to them and just tried too hard to get that extra metre.
So many attacking opportunities coming into Border’s half were ended at the breakdown with lost ball in contact, risky passes going down, or players being driven over the sideline.
Border could have blown the scoreline out further with more accurate goal kicking, or if a couple of balls kicked-ahead for speedster Vereniki Tikoisolomone had sat up instead of going out of play.
“It was a reasonable performance, but discipline probably let us down and put us under unnecessary pressure,” said Border coach Cole Baldwin.
“The score reflects the game anyway; we were probably 7-8 [more] points better. Take the win any day.”
Cole appreciated the likes of Middleton stepping up when two players were sent behind the posts – Border never stopped looking to attack and were able to eat up most of the clock.
“That’s what we’re about, it’s about working hard for each other, it’s not about being show ponies.
“That’s what a good team’s made of; they find something when it’s hard to find it.”
Border could run away with their points table lead if they can see off Byford Readimix Taihape next weekend – putting their home game streak of seven matches up against Taihape’s impressive road record of 10 consecutive wins.
“Whoever comes here needs to come with a pretty good game plan to knock us over,” said Baldwin.
Kaierau co-coach Carl Gibson knew his side did not show enough ball control to implement their game plan.
“That was uncharacteristic of our boys today – we’ve held the ball for phases and phases, and today [mistakes] just came from pressure.
“To be fair, that’s a credit to Border, they seriously brought pressure.
“We tackled and defended well, but for the first sort of 15-20 minutes, we didn’t have the ball much and they just kept bringing it; they brought physicality and they brought passion.”
Gibson said having that base let Clare launch for his try, while he and Horrocks had passed and kick perfectly.
“All those things just turned us round at key times.”
Kaierau will now go away and think about not getting lost in the moment – trying to set up a follow-on from the big busts instead of rolling the dice by trying to pass in narrow corridors.
“You don’t even need to do the offload when it’s not 100 per cent on, but that comes from pressure, you feel like you have to,” said Gibson.
“If things go well from here, I’d like to think we’ll get them at the end again.”
Clare broke the deadlock in the 18th minute after good leadup work from loose forwards Semi Vodosese and Renato Tikoisolomone; stepping through the defence off the ruck and then stepping back inside diving defenders to cross near the posts.
Without Scott, Robinson took a 28th minute penalty to reduce the gap to 7-3, but after forcing Kaierau into a shallow clearance from a 5m scrum, Border attacked from the lineout and Hodges used his height to get his arms free off the ruck and force the ball down.
Border weathered a late Kaierau counterattack before halftime, and then good kicking brought them back into the visitor’s territory for a Harding penalty to move them further clear in the 44th minute.
Kaierau needed a lift and brought on their reserve forwards, and after working up off a couple of tap kicks, second-five Ace Malo fired a wide pass to Hiscox, who survived the diving tackles of the cover defence to land beside them unheld, therefore twisting around to reach out and score.
Border responded immediately as Latu punched an opening to set up the next phases, with the ball spread for Vakarorogo to give Graham-Hooper open space with a fantastic pass while falling in the tackle, and the winger made it four straight games with tries.
A penalty for Border let them kick into Kaierau’s corner, and although they lost the throw-in, Horrocks flew after the clearing kick charge down to make a diving catch that would be the envy of any cricketer.
However, both he and Madams were binned by referee Noah Viliamu on the following consecutive plays, and although their team nearly managed to engineer a couple of breakaway tries from turnovers, Kaierau eventually held the ball long enough for Coveny to have a crack and step his way through the last defenders for a good try.
But the visitors would get no closer than 27-13, as Border resumed full strength and after Clare opened up an opportunity and Vereniki Tikoisolomone was just stopped in the far side corner, Latu ripped a loose ruck ball off the Kaierau cover and pumped through two of them to score.
Kaierau at that point were playing for bonus points, but it took until the 80th minute to get one try as Robinson backed himself going wide instead of passing; sliding through the outside cover and fending the last tackler away to dive across.
Border 32 (C Clare, J Hodges, I Graham-Hooper, L Horrocks, K Latu tries; N Harding pen, con, Clare con) bt Kaierau 18 (P Hiscox, K Coveny, E Robinson tries; Robinson pen). HT: 12-3.
