Whalers triumph in last minutes

LOUIS Tili held his nerve to make the clutch play that led the Otago Whalers to a squeaky victory in their opening game on Saturday.

Tili kicked a field goal from 40m with three minutes left on the clock to seal a 1514 win over the West Coast Chargers in Greymouth.

It was with the help of a strong breeze, but the Whalers fiveeighth still needed to get the mechanics right.

‘‘He hits them well anyway,’’ Otago coach David Reedy said.

‘‘I thought we were going to kick on the last tackle and then I realised, ‘he’s having a shot here’. He just smacked it and it went straight over.’’

The Whalers had battled for consistency in the first half, at the end of which the Chargers led 144.

That was partly because of the wind but also because Otago had no fewer than nine players on debut, and also had only 16 players in the squad, Reedy said.

‘‘We were a little bit rusty, and it was a bit cold and wet.

‘‘And we just had so many rookies in the team that it took a while to get going.

‘‘Talking to them afterwards, they said they found the speed a little bit quicker than club stuff, so it took them a while to get into the game and settle down.’’

West Coast used the strong breeze well, and pushed Otago round with some 4020s, Reedy said.

But he felt a turning point was right before halftime when the home side had all the momentum and was awarded a penalty in front of the posts.

Reedy expected the Chargers to run it against a tiring Whalers defence, but they settled for kicking two points, and he was not unhappy about trailing by 10 points at the break.

‘‘I thought it was probably a bit more than a 10point wind, and we really got into our work in the second half.’’

Secondrower Nale Fifita scored the opening try for the Whalers, and prop Israel Otunuku and centre Sam Wyber crossed for tries in the second half.

Reedy highlighted an outstanding performance from Otunuku on debut.

‘‘He played the full 80 and had some really strong carries and made a big impact on defence.’’

Otunuku, the former King’s College First XV rugby captain, has only just picked up the 13man code, so it was an impressive effort.

Wyber also had a debut to remember — Reedy praised his ‘‘good shoulders’’ and said Wyber carried with power and made some impactful tackles.

The Whalers are at home this Saturday to play the Aoraki Eels at the North Ground.

The Eels returned to the Southern Zone competition with a 4620 loss to the Southland Rams.