Dittman Shield heads South

by Matt Kersten ( 24/07/2013)
Hokitika and South Westland rugby team earned some consolation for their failed club campaigns when they beat a combined Grey Valley, Blaketown and Marist team 38-14 to claim the Dittman Shield, on Saturday.

McLean Park hosted the best of both the south and north of the Taramakau Bridge, just a week after the West Coast rugby final, which Blaketown won by a whisker over South Westland. The shield match on Saturday served as a sort of trial match for the selectors of the West Coast provincial side ahead of the Heartland competition.

The South Westland players who missed out in last week’s game had their revenge at the weekend, though, as the visiting 22 piled on six tries and racked up a 38-0 lead with 15 minutes left to play.

North showed some guts to not concede any more points in those final 15 minutes and score two tries of their own, but for much of the game they looked as though they could not control a clinical South side.

South’s pack dismantled North’s hooker Troy Tauwhare’s vocal leadership was not matched in any way by his opposition, and as a result they set the pace in the opening quarter. Tauwhare was the first to cross, set up by his brother Daniel, before another front-runner for Coast selection, prop Hiroshi Tea, crossed off some soft defence to put South in the driver seat at 12-0.

Halfback Jordan Searle, who was eye-catching at the base and around the fringes of the ruck, added a third as he took advantage of the platform laid by the forwards, just before prop David Oates was sent off for instigating a brawl and half-time was called.

Back after the break, South did not lose their stride, swinging the ball left and right to create an overlap which flanker Matt Samson was lucky enough to take advantage of. Dan Tauwhare orchestrated the next try from a scrum set play. Centre Mitch Brown hit the line at pace and Tauwhare’s delayed pass made it too hard to defend.
Just seconds later, Brown extended the lead as the North defence parted like the Red Sea, allowing him to speed over the line from 40m out.

North, having been in the back seat for the whole match, finally started stringing some phases together after the introduction of Grey Valley halfback Nick Makea. He made a noticeable difference around the ruck, ordering his forwards to spread out and taking the ball to the line to suck in tacklers. He set up their first try of the match by putting Tim Priest into space, then chip-kicking through for Phil Thomson to regather and score.

Makea then added his own name to the scoresheet, finishing off a sequence of penalties with a pick-and-go close to the line right on full-time.

South, though, had inflicted enough pain to safely win the match and lift the Dittman Shield.

Scorers.
South 38 (M Brown 2, T Tauwhare, M Samson, H Tea, J Searle tries; S McClure 3, D Tauwhare cons)

North 14 (P Thomson, N Makea tries; B Cain, T Priest cons).