Muir Trophy Final Round
By Matt Kersten

PICTURE: Matt Kersten
Kiwi wing James Foster kicks the ball on the fly down the sideline as Grey Valley fullback Luke Hughes chases, during their senior rugby match at Cass Square, Hokitika on Saturday.

Another underdog victory capped off Kiwi's inspiring late-season resurgence on Saturday, but the other four West Coast senior rugby teams will now go hammer and tongs in the play-offs starting next weekend.

The Hokitika-based side beat Grey Valley 36-31 at home on Cass Square. It was a fitting way to end an excellent late run for the team, which won five of its past six fixtures.

South Westland also turned on something special, upsetting Blaketown 26-20, in Whataroa, to claim the Arthur Fong Cup.

Despite Luke Hughes' efforts, Grey Valley could not quite pull back a 24-7 half-time deficit. The powerful valley fullback scored three tries and kicked three conversions for a personal tally of 21.
Kiwi backs were again impressive, Sean McClure showing vision to swing it wide from pivot whenever numbers were on their side. Jeremy Muir had yet another good performance at lock.
He opened the scoring with a penalty tap taken from 10m out, his strength showing as he pushed through every defender that came at him.

Hooker Troy Tauwhare finished off a counter attack for Kiwi's next try. Wing Horano Wilson, another standout for the men in blue, and fullback Dale Green set off after a chip kick down the left side that Wilson re-gathered, fed to Green, and Tauwhare came in to the resulting ruck to pick and dive over the line.

Hughes replied with the first of his hat-trick, charging in like a forward for a free kick tap close to Kiwi's line and finding a hole to fall through.

Five minutes later Tauwhare made it a brace as Kiwi worked the ball down the short side to make a break. Wilson continued his hot first half, intercepting a pass on his own try line and burning the chasers to make the score 24-7 at half-time, with McClure's conversion.

Blair Mirfin, running on to the field at half-time as has been standard for himself and Tere Wycliff this season, scored straight after the break as the Grey Valley forwards punished a Kiwi penalty near their line. McClure touched down immediately to restore the Kiwi lead, but Hughes took gaps on separate set moves at the other end to obliterate the score difference at 29-26.

After copping it on defence for a large part of the second half, Kiwi finally got their hands on the ball and centre Mitch Brown found his way through for a try to seal the result. Valley lock Andrew Verway scored just before the final whistle to give valley their second bonus point.

Scorers.--
Kiwi 36 (T Tauwhare 2, H Wilson, J Muir, M Brown, S McClure tries; McClure 3 cons)

Grey Valley 31 (L Hughes 3, A Verway, B Mirfin tries; Hughes 3 cons).

South Westland claimed the Arthur Fong Cup with a 26-20 victory over Blaketown, in Whataroa on Saturday. South Westland manager Ray Manera said it was a close match all the way through, and it "would have been against the run of play" if Blaketown had won.

Josh Batchelor scored a buzzer-beater try in the dying moments to steal the win.
"We started off really well," Manera said. "We pressured Blaketown on their line and got a couple penalties as a result. Then Blaketown scored an intercept try but we got back for one before half-time." At the break, South Westland were ahead, 13-5.

First five-eighth Corey Deans knocked over two penalties before the seagulls answered with two tries to young wing Beau Cain, putting Blaketown ahead, 20-19, with only 10 minutes remaining.
"With three minutes to go we got a penalty, got down their end and then pressured the line again. We finally got a try on fulltime."

Manera said it was a clean, physical game, and both sides played at a high level.

Scorers.--
South Westland 26 (C Deans, J Batchelor tries; Deans 4 pens, 2 cons),

Blaketown 20 (B Cain 2, M Funaki tries; Cain pen; N Williamson con).

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Matt Kersten
Greymouth Star Newspaper