Grey Valley centre Cole Jones does a 'Sonny-Bill' Iike offload to a team-mate during a Muir Trophy rugby match against Kiwi, at Ikamatua on Saturday

Kiwi produced the grittiest,gutsiest match of the seasonwhen, with only 15 players, they beat Grey Valley 27-26 in a thriller at lkamatua, on Saturday .Blaketown took care of South Westland 39-12 at Rugby Park, with wing Adam Richardson scoring a brace.

Kiwi opened and finished strongly in their first win for 2011, with player-coach Kyle Parker directing his team sensibly, and hooker Troy Tauwhare pilfering enough ball in the tackle to spur the Hokitika side to an inspiring triumph.

A notable area of strength for Kiwi was their scrum; other teams have been unable to match up when Grey Valley packs down but Kiwi more than held their own. There was no lack of desire from either team, and discipline sometimes slipped - Grey Valley spent 20 minutes ofthe match with only 14 players on the field after two yellow cards for fighting and killing the ball.

Valley showed some silky backline moves, one of them resulting in a try for an untouched Luke Hughes as he ran a perfect straight line and collected a wrap-around pass from first-five Ash Goode to completely bamboozle Kiwi second-five Jaime Kearns and step fullback Horano Wilson.

Kiwi scored a stunning try within several minutes of kickoff Openside Jeremy Dwyer, who transferred to Kiwi with first-five Sean McClure after Wests folded, was put into space by Wilson on the blindside and outpaced the chasers.Grey Valley replied immediately, with
Hughes taking the ball to where his backs had numbers and put wing Kurt Becker over in the corner.

Brad Clough followed up for the hosts - phases of quick ball had Kiwi on the back foot and there was no way to stop valley`s momentum. Hughes converted for a 12-5 lead. After a good build-up by the forwards, props Dylan Thompson and Elton Williams in particular, Kiwi wing Tom Payne grabbed a five-pointer when valley had been worn down in a tryline assault.

Despite a rough patch in which Hughes bagged a stunning double to extend Grey Valley's lead to 26-10, Kiwi did not drop their heads. ln the second halt; Dwyer scored his second after McClure set him up as Kiwi moved the ball to their overlap. McClure scored his own down the right side not two minutes later and converted it to trail by only four and have valley captain Mark O`Malley roaring at his subjects.

Kiwi were invigorated and relentlessly rolled into the rucks, Tauwhare making his mark when it mattered most, Despite valley's desperate defence, Kiwi attackers got off too many offloads and No8 jeremy Muir dived over for the winning try. The whole Kiwi team should be
recognised for a superb effort, both the backs and forwards performed with aplomb.

Results —
Kiwi 27 (J Dwyer 2, J Muir, T Payne, S McClure tries; McClure con)
Grey Valley26 (L Hughes 2, K Becker, B Clough tries; Hughes 3 cons)

Blaketown 39 (A Richardson 2, L McEwen, S Pascoe, A Monk, B Cain tries; Cain penalty, 3 cons),
South Westland 12 (C Deans 3 pens, drop goal)