From last year’s Lochore Cup win, Ngāti Porou East Coast look to contest for Heartland rugby’s highest silverware

The Sky Blues are in the Meads Cup equation.

The 31-26 loss that the Ngāti Porou East Coast Kaupoi had to the Thames Valley Swamp Foxes on Saturday is now as water off a duck’s back.

Having scored four tries and being within seven points of their hosts at Rugby Park, Waihi, by game’s end, fourth-placed NPEC (27 competition points) will now travel to Pleasant Point Domain for the 1 v 4 Meads Cup clash with two-time defending champions South Canterbury at 3.05pm on semifinals this Saturday.

Thames Valley have a 1.05pm Meads Cup appointment, 2 v 3, at Cooks Gardens with Whanganui — the Butcher Boys.

If 2022 Lochore Cup champions — but now huge underdogs — the Kaupoi end South Canterbury’s 29-game winning streak (and claim the Allan “Smiley” Haua Memorial Trophy in the process), the Sky Blues will travel to either the Gardens, Boyd Park in Te Aroha or Rhodes Park in Thames for the Meads Cup decider on finals Saturday, October 14.

They will have left the Ranfurly Shield of Heartland Rugby, the Bill Osborne Taonga, safely at Enterprise Cars Whakarua Park in Ruatōria for the summer.

Sky Blues captain and halfback Sam Parkes is well aware of the need for rugby to entertain its public.

“By all accounts, our game against Thames Valley was very good to watch from a spectator’s point of view,” he said.

“Seven great tries were scored and it was close — creating a tense finish — but as a player it’s never good to lose, so we were disappointed to have lost.”

Valley head coach David Harrison said: “It was, as always, a tough clash and a great game against NPEC, especially given the difficult conditions — strong winds and rain. There were momentum swings for each team. I’m pleased that we managed to win just enough key moments to get the result.”

NPEC No.8 Mitchell Crosswell was named the Kaupoi (the Coast’s most valuable player) while tighthead prop Mosese Mafi was named Thames Valley’s MVP.

Second five-eighth Sam McCahon and lock Cameron Dromgool serve as co-captains for the Swamp Foxes this season: Dromgool won the toss and chose to play with the strong nor’westerly breeze as a crowd of 1450 looked on.

Bay of Plenty referee Andy Morton gave the home team the first penalty of the match, for an uppish tackle, nine metres into NPEC territory, five metres left of centre, and No.11 Fletcher Morgan drew first blood from his natural side after two minutes’ play. An even-handed Morton got both sides at the breakdown early in the game. In the eighth minute, Morgan again did duty with his second kick at goal from centreground, 25m back, for 6-0.

The Coast took their first lead of Week 8 with a converted try in the 14th minute. From a penalty tap-kick by Parkes eight metres right of centre, nine metres from the line, the Sky Blues swept down the blindside and then back across the face of goal over seven phases of play before the skipper scored nine metres to the left of the posts. Outstanding first-five Terangi Fraser converted the NPEC’s try for 7-6.

In the 18th minute, Harrison’s outfit made an answer: from a scrum 13m into NPEC territory, 17m off the right touch, No.8 Savelio Ropati hit halfback Leroy Neels on the short side and he found hard-running first-five Hendrix Beazley on the fly. Beazley got the last pass away and fullback Calum Wood scored in the corner.

Morgan converted superbly from the sideline for 13-7, and in the 19th minute and 41st minute, two more penalty goals from Morgan gave him 14 points for the half and the Swamp Foxes the upper hand, 19-7, at the break.

Four minutes after the resumption, from a superb platform at the five-metre scrum, 15m in from the left corner, Kaupoi No.8 Mitchell Crosswell charged openside and made mincemeat of the Valley. He scored six metres to the left of the posts. Fraser’s conversion got the Sky Blues back in the game but still trailing 19-14.

In the 56th minute, the Coast took their second lead off the back of a great try by centre Apirana Pewhairangi.

From a five-metre scrum 16m off the left touch, Parkes sent his big runners right, then left. Pewhairangi dotted down 13m in from the corner. Fraser converted for 21-19 to the Coast.

Crosswell was, as usual, superb in all parts — especially the lineout — and second-five Tevita Nabura was ever-dangerous with his power and ability to break tackles.

Morgan took a well-deserved try with tremendous pace in the 60th minute for 24-21. When the wind blew the ball off the kicking tee, to make the kick within the 60 seconds allowable, Morgan was forced to attempt a drop-goal with his right foot. Said shot pinged back and shot off the crossbar. In the 67th minute, Valley scrum-anchor Mafi scored the match-winning try under the bar for 29-21. With Morgan’s last conversion, the Valley led 31-21.

It only remained for NPEC fullback Renata Roberts-Te Nana to score in the 71st minute — without a conversion — for 31-26 to the Valley. The genesis of that last, most basic but solid score was a five-metre scrum, six metres off the left touch at the Valley’s end of the ground. Parkes sent the ball right through Fraser, blindside flanker Faifili Levave and Nabura before Roberts-Te Nana put paid to the Thames cover defence and went over eight metres in from the corner.