The one that got away
Ouch, that really hurt! Farriers Wairarapa-Bush were good enough to beat Buller, should have beaten Buller, but ulimtately lost 24-26 in the crucial round six Heartland Championship match in Masterton this afternoon.
The best side on the paddock for sixty minutes it was the ten minutes either side that cost them.
A big factor was also the southerner’s plucky pivot James Lash who was a class act proving that rugby is not always a 15-man game. Behind a forward pack often going backwards the first-five and former Tasman Makos player was superb in his option taking and execution.
The visitors made all the play in the opening ten minutes and were rewarded with the first try. They turned down a shot at goal right in front and Lash kicked to the corner. From the line out prop Phil Beveridge barrelled over for a try, superbly converted by Lash.
That seemed to spark the home team into action and in the space of 12-minutes they racked up 22-points.
The secret was to keep it simple with the forwards doing the hard graft putting Buller under pressure. The first of their three quick-fire tries came after a stab at the line from live-wire half back John Ika and when he was held up popped the ball back to loose forward Sam Gammie to crash over.
More good pressure from the forwards saw Wairarapa-Bush march towards the Buller line. They turned down a shot at goal from out in front, worked the ball left from the scrum and then back the other way to the unmarked Cameron Hayton on the wing to score out-wide.
Hayton made it a double a short time later. The Wairarapa-Bush pack was making mince meat of their opposites and when prop Stan Wright peeled off and laid the ball back, quick hands saw a flying Zac Guildford bust the line and off-load for Hayton to dot down near the upright.
It looked to be one-way traffic, but then a moment of Lash brilliance when he split open the Wairarapa-Bush defence sending try-scoring maestro Setefano Sauqaqa free to score.
Despite the set back, Wairarapa-Bush seemed to have regained the ascendancy during the opening stanzas of the second half. Their willingness to pass the ball around saw them twice make inroads into the Buller defence only to sell themselves short with poor option taking.
Buller made them pay and naturally it was none other than that man James Lash again. From his own ten metre line he chipped the ball over the charging Wairarapa-Bush defence and, helped by a favourable bounce, regained the ball and shot away to score. His conversion put Buller back in front, 24-22.
The match then ebbed and flowed however Wairarapa-Bush alway looked the most likely to score. Eventually they did when Andy Humberstone slotted a penalty goal from out in front. Moments later he could have put them ahead however pushed the ball wide from a handy position.
Sensing Wairarapa-Bush were panicking Buller rallied in the last five minutes. Wairarapa-Bush gave away a soft penalty which Lash duly slotted in the 78th minute.
RESULT:
Wairarapa-Bush 24 (Cameron Hayton 2 tries, Sam Gammie try, Tim Priest 2 conversions, Andy Humbersone penalty)
Buller 26 (Phil Beveridge, Setefano Sauqaqa ties, James Lash try 3 conversions and a penalty)
HT 22-16 Wairarapa-Bush.
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