South Westland were nearly the victims of their own mistakes in their 25-23 Muir Trophy win against Kiwi, at Cass Square on Friday.

Meanwhile, Grey Valley returned to form with a 30 - 29 upset over Marist, and Blaketown ripped through Wests 81 - 10, both at Arthur Fong Park, in Blaketown.

South Westland manager Ray Manera pushed the southerners to the limit in their match, although "stupid moves" almost cost them.

"Like our try that wasn't, our second-five (Pierre Jonker) broke through the line and made it under the posts, and while he was doing a little dance he dropped the ball."

"Another example was in the first half, our fullback (Bobby Pratt) was trying to be fancy and flick the ball in from touch, but Dale Green intercepted and scored."

"We got the bonus point, we'll take that, but it wasn't pretty to watch or anything."

In Wests' match against Blaketown, the hosts set their efforts on playing structured rugby and their bigger forwards made sure the job was done properly.

Blaketown manager Mike Hawke said there were a couple moments in the match when Wests outplayed the Seagulls, but for the most part Blaketown had it all under control.

"It was the start of the next round and a chance for us to measure how we'd improved over the past four or five weeks. We're lucky with the depth in our squad this season."

Robert Thomson penetrated on every occasion that he returned the ball from fullback, while Aho Langi, Nathan McEwen and Nathan Iafeta were solid in the forwards.

Results:-
South Westland 25 ( M Riley , K Harris , J Batchelor , C Deans tries; Deans pen , con)
Kiwi 23 ( D Green ,D Oates tries; Green pen , con; D Tauwhare 2 pens, con)

Blaketown 81 ( C Aiki 2 , A Langi 2 , B Houston 2 , N McEwen 2 , A Richardson 2 , A Monk , P Thomson , J Ward tries ; A Richardson 3 cons , B Cain 5 Cons)
Wests 10 ( S Hannan , S Meldrum tries )

Grey Valley 30 ( L Hughes , H Scott , S King , T Wycliff tries ; Hughes pen , 2 cons)
Marist 29 ( N Langi , S Nusi , A Thomas , A Webber , A Lewis tries ; M Mudu 2 cons)

Grey Valley hangs on
By MATT KERSTEN
of the Greymouth Star

Grey Valley's collective forward effort and a failure to play positionally by Marist in the second half led to the men in green losing by a single point during a Muir Trophy rugby match, at Arhur Fong Park on Friday.

At 22 - 12 at half - time, and changing to the side of the field with a constant wind heading towards the seas, Marist should have wrapped up the game without issue.

However, Grey Valley's big forwards - most noticeably veterans Blair Mirfin and Tere Wycliff, who came on after the first 40 minutes - and Marist's own inability to pin the corners, allowed the underdogs to come back and nab a solid win.

Fullback Luke Hughes notched the valley's first points with a penalty and first-five Ash Goode slotted a long drop goal to make it 6 - 0 by the 10 minute mark.

Marist back rower Napol Langi, who has been in rampaging form over the past few weeks, charged in for the first try after second five Eroni Uluiborutu made a sharp break from a set lineout move. Uluiborutu's basketball pass to fullback Alex Webber stuck, and the Welsh youngster made it to within 5m of the try line, followed by Langi's pick and go, to inevitably result in points.

Grey Valley's response, also a back move, ended with Hughes scoring under the black dot.

Uluiborutu was the Architect of two beautiful tries to stun Grey Valley; he wrapped around the back of a scrum to go blindside, break winger J J Wilson's tackle and draw and pass to flanker Sua Nusi for the First, and then Webber into space with a predetermined chip kick for 15 - 13 scoreline.

Prop Aled Thomas added further to the valley pain, also breaking the line on the short side of a scrum and sprinting over the chalk.

Grey Valley's ascendency was wiped out with the three tries, and at half-time it looked as though Marist had locked the game up and thrown away the key. However, the injection of Wycliff and Mirfin was immediately evident.

So Typical was Grey Valley's first forward manoeuvre that none of the spectators was surprised when halfback Sam King grounded the ball in the first five minutes of the second half.

Marist's bonus point try - an opportune one when Maleli Mudu picked up a loose ball and offloaded to Adam Lewis - was merely a blip on the radar, as Grey Valley won several scums against the head and second five Hayden Scott found a gap close to the line to make it 29 - 25 .

It was Wycliff who came up with the game winner, and one that looked so effortless as none of the Marist defemders looked like they wanted to attempt to halt his momentum.

King tapped quickly on an attacking penalty and to Wycliff, who strode 20m through his opponents.

Despite Hughes' missed conversion, the visitors only needed the one point buffer and toughed out 10 minutes of offensive onslaughts from Marist to earn their victory.

Uluiborutu stood out for Marist, as did Nusi and Langi.

Mirfin's leadership sewed up the Grey Valley boys right when they needed it.

Scorers:-
Grey Valley 30 ( L Hughes , H Scott , S King , T Wycliff tries ; Hughes pen , 2 cons)
Marist 29 ( N Langi , S Nusi , A Thomas , A Webber , A Lewis tries ; M Mudu 2 cons)