Tukapa retain crown
Triumphant Tukapa co-coach Laurence Corlett admitted he did not see the dramatic end to Saturday’s premier club rugby final at Yarrow Stadium.
Stood at the far end of the ground, Corlett turned his back as player after player pounded away at the Coastal line with time already up.
With Corlett’s back turned, Adrian Wyrill took a deft pass from distance and crashed through the defence of two Coastal players to score. Despair and delight then filled the in goal area as Tukapa players embraced while many of the Coastal men simply sunk to their knees.
The resolute defence that had kept the champions at bay for what had seemed longer than the few minutes it actually was, had been broken.
‘‘What an unbelievable finish,’’ Corlett said. ’’I wasn’t even watching. I still can’t believe we won, the way we played. Both teams were desperate and afraid to try things.
‘‘But for us to come through, just like last week in the last three minutes, it’s a funny feeling. For whatever reason we just lacked a bit of spark.
‘‘Coastal, they’ll be gutted because it was an arm wrestle, an absolute arm wrestle. I’ve been saying all year we have to play 80 minutes of rugby and we probably TUKAPA 17 (Liam Ward, Adrian Wyrill tries; Jayson Potroz 2 cons, pen) COASTAL 14 (Rick McKenna try; McKenna 3 pens). HT: 7-8
played 84 minutes today and we’ve gone back-to-back, it’s unbelievable, I’m still a bit shocked.’’
While the final did not produce as many tries as some had predicted, there was no shortage of drama as the match came to its cli- max.
Firstly, Tukapa lock Louis Duffels des Forges was yellow carded for a high tackle before Coastal took a narrow 11-10 and then 14-10 lead.
Secondly, Tukapa claimed a try when the ball was clearly over the dead ball line. However, the officials deliberated for what felt like an extraordinary amount of time before opting not to award a five pointer.
Then, as the seconds ticked away, Blake Barrett was yellow carded for not retreating in defence before Wyrill sealed the deal.
The dejection from Coastal coach Aaron Fisher was evident as he saw the final few moments unfold from just a few metres away.
‘‘It’s what they’ve done all year and we didn’t expect anything different, it’s just a shame,’’ he said.
‘‘If you asked me at the start of the year if we could have done it with this bunch of boys, I probably would have questioned myself. But they got us here and they’re built on hard work, you wouldn’t get a bigger bunch of hearts than these boys and they’ll be broken at the moment.’’
Fisher and co-coach Ricky Tito had been screaming for a few late calls to go their way as every tackle and breakdown was contested as fiercely as those in the first minute.
‘‘That’s just rugby, when games are that close it’s a bounce of a ball or a ref’s call. You could not fault either team for their effort.’’