Injury-hit Mustangs can’t quite hold on
An injury-hit Manawatu¯ Mustangs team have just failed to hold on for a hard-fought win against the Northland Sharks.
The 24-22 loss in the dying minutes of last Saturday’s North Island champs match at Fitzherbert Park, Palmerston North, started promisingly for the home side.
Up 22-4 at halftime, the Mustangs then lost four players to injury, meaning they had no fresh subs to come off the bench for a final push.
Northland had a full bench and came back to snatch the match as fulltime approached.
Luckily for the recovering players, the Mustangs have a bye this weekend before their next match, in Waitara, against the Taranaki Sharks on Saturday afternoon next week.
Mustangs player-coach Haze Reweti pulled a hamstring and is out for six to eight weeks, meaning he misses the side’s remaining matches. A similar injury resulted in him taking up coaching.
Also forced off the park were veteran Hemi Hindmarsh, whose asthma was playing up, Alex Nootai, who also injured a hamstring, and Leonard Matapuku, with a shoulder injury.
‘‘They ran the legs off us in the last half hour or 20 minutes.’’
Haze Reweti, Mustangs player-coach
Reweti said the Mustangs ‘‘came out all guns blazing’’ and he scored a try in the first minute.
A few minutes later winger Matapuku dotted down, followed by Jahlon Governor and 17-year-old wing Kayin Katene. Governor converted three of his four attempts.
Then the injuries struck, with the Mustangs on track for a famous win against a strong side.
‘‘They ran the legs off us in the last half hour or 20 minutes,’’ Reweti said.
‘‘They’ve got a pretty decent side. Them and Wellington will have a pretty good go at each other.’’
The Mustangs’ player of the match, as he was a week before in the 36-22 defeat at home to Wellington, was prop Taumutu Afemuinohotima, who’s had experience in Australia with the Canberra Raiders and Melbourne Storm clubs.
As well as the Taranaki clash, the Mustangs have a game against Bay of Plenty a week later to round out the North Island competition.