A cruel blow
If Manawatu¯ ’s Hankins Shield club rugby final will be missing anything next Saturday, it will be the controlling presence of Feilding first five-eighth Ben Wyness.
He tragically suffered a broken ankle a half hour into Feilding’s 38-19 semifinal win over Varsity at Johnston Park and with it went his season, which was to be his first as a contracted Turbos player.
Feilding coach Kelvin Tantrum said it did affect the tenor of the dressing room afterwards, as Wyness was being prepared for surgery.
‘‘That’s such a blow; he’d worked so hard to get a contract.
‘‘Our guys were pretty spent after the game and he’s a big part of our team. When you get to the final you want to have everybody for the final.’’
Up at Kimbolton where the tigerish Feilding Old Boys-o¯ roua Stags blew out Kia Toa in the second spell to win handsomely 31-17, coach Glen Gregory appreciated how big a part Wyness played with Yellows and he would have preferred to take them on with Wyness there.
The day’s results set up the first all-feilding clash – finals began in Manawatu¯ in 1980. Feilding, who are celebrating their 140-year jubilee, reached the final in 2007 but their Hankins win was 34 years ago in 1984, 14-12 over College Old Boys.
Saturday’s was the Stags’ second semifinal as a combined club. Their only final was in 2010 when they lost 11-10 to Varsity.
Meanwhile, Varsity hung on like limpets to Feilding until the last 12 minutes. By then the Yellows’ forward muscle took toll as the heat came on and Feilding took the breakdowns away from Mickey Woolliams and Kirk Tufuga.
At Kimbolton, FOB-O¯ roua squeezed Kia Toa until they popped. The final will show the Stags with their blanketed pack will simply not go away and they scored five tries to two in the semifinal, four of them coming from lineouts and mauls from 5 metres out.
Kias could never have done that because their lineout totally malfunctioned, mostly from shocking throwing. And again their penalties affliction returned, so much so in the second spell they didn’t get over the halfway line.
Halfback Atu Henare was binned in the first half for repeated infringements and lock Fraser Stone, again, was binned for punching stringbean Hamish Bennett. The touch judge did not see Bennett was equally guilty.
With Stone cooling, the Stags destroyed Kias’ seven-man scrum.
Kias had started well enough, Jade Te Rure probing the blindside through quick hands, which led to an easy try. FOBO throughout turned down shots at goal from their avalanche of penalties and it paid off. They peeled off the 17-5 halftime deficit in quick time.
‘‘The boys showed courage by turning down three points,’’ said Gregory. ‘‘We didn’t come to a final to play rugby we hadn’t played before. If you take the points, they [Kias] get a chance to reset.’’
In the second spell playing downhill, Tom Stewart and Paora Rakatau plugged the famous incline at the clubhouse corner and the kicks turned Kias inside out and they were imprisoned.
All of the Stags toiled, notably No 8 Alex Hawira and Jamie Perigo who was a menace on the wing.
For Kia Toa coach Bertus Mulder, that was his sendoff after three years as he switches to family duties. Kias had been in the final every year since 2013 and in the semifinals since 2008.
He praised the Stags and dismissed speculation about his team’s fitness: ‘‘FOBO were well drilled. We knew we had to attack them around the set piece and we just didn’t execute.
‘‘We couldn’t get our phases going in the first half and we knew we needed a better bank of points.
‘‘They suffocated us in the second half.’’
Meanwhile, College OB and Old Boys-marist will meet in the Val Holland final.