Blaketown made to work for win
by Julian Lee – GreyStar ( 15/05/2013)
How does South Westland do it? What is their secret? Despite being one of the most poorly manned squads on the Coast, regularly struggling to field a team, South Westland still give everyone a run for their money.
Saturday at McLean Park, Blaketown, was no exception, where South Westland were kicking themselves over a 25-18 loss to Blaketown, while the Greymouth
boys came off the field counting their blessings at what was a narrow escape from defeat.
As the game started, South Westland had no reserves while Blaketown managed to field one of the largest teams it has had this season, despite missing seven regulars. But the southerners were not disheartened by this at all, and began the game with an impressive offensive.
Their defence, however, was a little patchy, with Blaketown second-five Tyler Davy taking advantage of a gap in the line to make some serious ground before scoring a try in the corner. This was followed by a penalty from fullback Beau Cain.
South Westland narrowed the gap a little with a penalty kick by fullback Cory Deans, and fantastic runs by winger Colin Scott and second-five Josh Hill led to a try by centre Nathan Blackburn, with Deans converting to put the score at 10-8 to south.
Blaketown could not believe it when Scott, who was playing an excellent game, took advantage of their lost ball and took it to the line where prop Rob Wilson snatched it from the breakdown and scored a try.
Coming up to half-time, Blaketown decided enough was enough with good kicking by first-five Phil Thompson helping out Blaketown’s exceptional winger Brogan Jackson to score a try, evidence that despite his size Jackson is proving himself as one of the best wingers in the competition.
A converted try put the score 15-15 at half-time, but Blaketown were not happy with that. Another of Blaketown’s star players, their No 8 Rob Gabriel, scored a try. Deans then followed that up with a successful penalty, before the game slipped into a complete deadlock.
South Westland appeared to be getting a bit lacklustre and tired, which was a shame because their strength seemed to be on the offensive.
An example was when Deans went for a penalty kick, it bounced off the posts and the team did not really chase it up, enabling Blaketown to get the ball. Now south seemed to be resigning themselves to defeat, especially when Cain kicked a penalty with 10 minutes to go. Soon, Deans was coming off the field with a foot injury and South Westland were missing a fullback but managed to prevent Blaketown getting any more points.
Once again, that elusive victory that south has been clamouring for slipped out of their grasp in the last few minutes.
Meanwhile, Marist dealt a 57-12 hiding to Wests, at Karoro, with first-five Josh Costello racking up a whopping 32 points by scoring a hat-trick and converting seven out of eight tries.
It must have been a good week for the northerners because Grey Valley also won, against Kiwi 21-7 at Ikamatua, a disappointment for Kiwi , who have been playing consistently well all season.
Results.
Blaketown 25 (T Davy, B Jackson, R Gabriel tries; B Cain 2 pens, 2 cons)
South Westland 18 (N Blackburn, R Wilson tries; C Deans 2 pens, con);
Grey Valley 21 (K Moore 2, S King tries; T Priest 3 cons)
Kiwi 7 (M Olson try; S McClure con);
Marist 57 (J Costello 3, M Mudu, J Komen, T Mamao, D Greaney, N Hunia tries; J Costello 7 cons, pen)
Wests 12 (H Tea, M Slaven tries; A Shaw con).