Contrasting fortunes for Rams, Swamp Foxes
There were mixed fortunes for King Country and Thames Valley in the opening round of the Heartland Championship on Saturday.
In the competition which is trialling a scoring system of sixpoint tries and two-point goals (of any kind), King Country snuck past Wairarapa Bush 18-16 in Masterton, while Thames Valley were done at the death by Horowhenua-Kapiti, going down 34-30 in Paeroa.
The Rams and Swamp Foxes are the only sides not to have made it to a Meads Cup semifinal before, and King Country, who won the Lochore Cup last year, will be hoping they can build from a positive start.
Wairarapa Bush, who finished in fourth spot last year, were boosted by the signing of Zac Guildford, who played at centre and helped draw a crowd of around 2000 to Memorial Park in miserable conditions.
In a stop-start first half full of handling errors, the visitors opened the scoring after quarter of an hour when centre Stephan Turner dived over after a loose pass had been toed through.
It took until five minutes before halftime for the hosts to assert their dominance on the scoreboard, and they did so spectacularly when loose forward James Goodger leaped high to score from a Sam Monaghan crosskick.
With Tim Priest adding a penalty, it was 8-8 at the break.
King Country halfback Zayn Tipping restored the lead for the Rams through a penalty 15 minutes into the second spell, and then a pushover try from prop Sean Wanden in the 73rd minute, followed by Tipping’s conversion, had the visitors up 18-8.
Wairarapa Bush closed the margin, with hooker Richard Puddy crashing over and Priest converting. But with one last shot at victory, the ball was spilled in a tackle, and the Rams breathed a sigh of relief.
Thames Valley weren’t so fortunate, with the opposite happening to them in a see-sawing contest at the Paeroa Domain.
Through tries to Johnny Hale and Lance Easton, the Swamp Foxes shot out to a 16-0 lead, before going to halftime behind 18-16 after the visitors pounced on the hosts’ inaccuracies.
Thames Valley came out of the sheds firing again, with Norman Solofa and Jonnie Te RukiChambers crossing for tries, and the set pieces being dominant.
But, with the home side up 30-28 with a couple of minutes to go, a loose carry around their 22m line was pounced on by HorowhenuaKapiti - who were at one stage down to 13 men with two in the sin bin - and the ball was quickly moved to space, with first-five Andrew Lima finishing the movement out wide.
There was time for the restart, but the visitors claimed it and kicked it out, to seal a remarkable comeback.
Next weekend Thames Valley are away to North Otago in Oamaru, while King Country host Poverty Bay in Taupo.
The other results in round one saw defending champions Wanganui hammer West Coast 74-6 at Cooks Gardens, South Canterbury edge Buller 28-26 in Timaru, Mid Canterbury beat North Otago 40-32 in Ashburton, and Poverty Bay defeat East Coast 54-30 in Gisborne.