Mighty Marty monster Marist
By WALT DICKSON
Martinborough are hitting their straps at the business end of the season, smashing Marist 38-19 this afternoon at Trust House Memorial Park in Masterton.
The must-win game for both teams was all over just three minutes into the second half when the visitors scored a bonus point fourth try to lead 26-nil.
The result firmly cements the southerners in the top four of the Tui Cup competition with two rounds still to play ahead of the semi-finals.
Open-side flanker Chris Raymond capped off an excellent game with three tries, centre Tristan Flutely scored a brace and first-five eighth Armyn Saunders one.
Saunders, a former Counties-Manukau representative, had a huge influence directing play. His massive cut-out pace, thrown with pin-point accuracy, directly lead to a try, while his own five-point was pure class.
Saunders did have the luxury of a tonne of ball to work with, thanks to a forward pack which largely had the measure of their more sluggish opposites.
Flutey also impressed. His explosive running made him a constant threat when with the ball in hand. While the benefactor of Saunders’ vision in his first try, his second, shortly before half time, was all his own doing.
Raymond opened the scoring with a try after ten-minutes and Martinborough were further rewarded on the first quarter mark when Flutey dotted down.
The visitors continued to set a frenetic pace, and it was too much for Marist to handle allowing Flutey to waltz through the defences and score a terrific try in the left-hand corner.
But anything the young Flutey could do, an older Saunders could do better. No sooner had the second half got underway and the veteran gathered in an off-loaded and slipped a couple of tackles to score under the posts.
Pua Tafa finally got Marist on the scoreboard finishing off a nice counter-attack with a try, but Raymond cancelled that out with his second five minutes later and then his third ten minutes from the end.
Marist scored two more tries, through prop Stan Wright and half-back Hama Potora, to narrow the final margin. But make no mistake, Martinborough were very classy and with this sort of performance will be contenders for a grand final spot on July 29.
In other matches, Carterton was too good for East Coast winning 59-12 to leap-frog several teams into fourth on the table. Meanwhile, Gladstone retained their spot at the table of the table walloping Eketahuna 54-25 on Friday night.
In the final game of the day Greytown held on to beat Pioneer 24 – 18.
You must be logged in to post a comment.