The WRFU trophy cabinet is a little lighter than expected as a somewhat flat Steelform Whanganui could not overcome a horror start in their 34-17 upset loss to King Country at Cooks Gardens on Saturday.

Securing their first away victory over the Butcher Boys since 2013 (they also drew in 2015), King Country deserved to hang onto the Sir Colin Meads Memorial Trophy with their first-ever successful defence, while becoming the first Bunnings Warehouse Heartland Championship team to win, then lose, and regain the Bill Osborne Taonga – in the same season no less.

Hitting their straps right from kickoff, whereas for the first 12 minutes Whanganui only touched the ball three times and made two fumbles, King Country rocketed out to a 17-0 advantage while the hosts were reduced to 14 men with fullback Ethan Robinson, playing his fourth different position this campaign, being sinbinned for a desperate high collar in trying to save a try.

In his return to the starting lineup and not yet back to full speed, Alekesio Vakarogo had a tough battle out wide against King Country’s Fijian powerhouses Josevata Malimole and double try-scorer Apete Matai.

Hooker and captain Liam Rowlands and industrious halfback Kristian Gent-Standen would be delighted with their pack’s efforts – alternating powerful counter-rucking with niggly spoiling of possession, getting several key turnovers to blunt Whanganui’s momentum when they finally got the ball.

No8 Kaleb Foote also scored two tries for a memorable afternoon.

Fullback Patrick Hedley punished Whanganui with the boot in the first half, and while making a few misses going into the wind in the second stanza, delivered the play of the match with a brilliant grubber kick re-gather and offload from the deck in one fluid motion at speed, for Matai to put the nail in the coffin at 34-12 with 14 minutes left.

Whanganui’s home Meads Cup semifinal hopes looked sunk at that moment, until it was revealed that up in Whitianga, Horowhenua-Kapiti were defying all the odds to hand third-place Thames Valley a shocking defeat of their own.

For Whanganui, the early errors were followed by pressure at ruck and scrum time, then touch-finder kicks missing their mark and overthrown lineouts became a concern.

After some bad luck with his initial restart chases, flanker Josefa Namosimalua was again a standout and a rare threat when Whanganui got to the fringes, particularly in the second quarter – as winger Josaia Bogileka scored one try while both prop Keightley Watson and winger Peceli Malanicagi were unlucky to just be denied.

The reserve bench – aka ‘Mob Squad’ - again gave good service with front-rower Raymond Salu and winger Mitai Hemi dotting down in the second half, but by then it was too late.

 “They came out firing, out of the gates, nothing to lose – it shows they put the work in this week and it showed on the paddock today,” said Whanganui skipper Jamie Hughes of their committed opposition.

“I think that puts a bit more pressure on us, to be playing at home, after a loss like that, to actually perform next week.

“Hopefully the boys are ready to put the work in this week, and we’ll see what happens on Saturday.”

It was the gremlin performance coach Jason Hamlin had feared ever since the last-minute defeat to South Canterbury in Week 1.

 “Our execution was poor - I thought they were more direct and clear on what they were doing.

“Their work on the ground was really good – they attacked our ball, so whether our boys weren’t being strong or weren’t getting there in time or being quick enough.

“We were definitely getting beaten to the punch on the first hit, they just kept slowing our ball down and they had some nice touches, some finishes where they came through the midfield.

“But we weren’t our clinical best, that’s painfully obvious.

“Just frustrating really, talking about trying to put in the effort and not getting out-worked on any given day, and I think today they just out-worked us.

“They were far more direct and a lot more physicality within their carries and their cleans, and our halfback was having to deal with too much rubbish.

“Even at the end when we changed it and we got more ball and quicker tempo we were still getting knock-ons at the base of the ruck, and that was due to the pressure they were presenting.”

Unfortunately Whanganui picked up another couple of knocks, meaning a lot of work will be needed both mentally and physically to be ready for Thames Valley.

 “Their bodies are sore and we know that, at this time of year everyone’s sore and no-one’s 100 [per cent], but they just seemed to have more energy than what we showed, and that was the disheartening thing,” said Hamlin.

 “It should have cost us the [home] semifinal, but we’ve got the opportunity next week to come back here and put some things to bed.”

Whanganui were rocked right out of the gate after a dropped ball on King Country’s first clearance coming out of the sun, and after a succession of carries from the scrum, a penalty chance saw Hedley boot them into the lead in the fifth minute.

The restart bat down by Whanganui was fumbled, and followed by a King Country scrum penalty, and from another good attacking position, the visitors carried the ball up into heavy contract, and eventually Foote bumped through one tackle and got his arm free to reach out and place it on the line in the next tackle for 10-0 in nine minutes.

This time, Whanganui’s attempts to claim the restart saw the ball go out, and King Country came charging again - Robinson binned after Hedley, Matai and Gent-Standen broke through on an attacking raid.

Although Whanganui forced a fumble from the penalty scrum, King Country swiftly ran back their clearance, and after committing defenders in the left-hand corner, a long Hedley pass got the exposed right-hand side, where winger Zacharia Wickham-Darlington stepped the cover tackle to sprint in for 17-0 following his fullback’s excellent conversion in the 16th minute.

Finally galvanised, this time Whanganui won the restart and got into their work with lateral attacks and short balls, although King Country met that with determination and swift hands going for the tackled ball.

Despite being hurt, Vakarorogo soldiered on and made some line breaks, while hooker Alesana Tofa looked to create chances down the touchline with Namosimalua.

Finally, after prop Kamipeli Latu drove to the line, halfback Eben Claassen got a quick recycle and flicked it out for Bogileka to get the ball down through his marker in the corner.

Coming back out for the second half with sun and wind behind them, Whanganui needed to keep the momentum up, but instead a King Country tighthead scrum win offered up a unexpected chance and the defenders were not set, as Matai flashed down the touchline to score in the corner just four minutes after resumption.

Pedley missed the conversion and a difficult penalty chance, but when first-five Latrell Smiler-Ah-Chong found a huge gap off the ruck near halfway, he charged into Whanganui’s backfield and fed Foote to run off and score in the corner for a decisive 29-5 advantage after a great Pedley conversion.

Now too far behind, Whanganui did reply quickly as they trapped King Country at the kickoff ruck, and following an attacking lineout, the fresh reserve forwards carried to the line, with Salu getting the shunt behind him to score near the posts, with Robinson converting quickly.

But faint hopes of a miraculous comeback were dashed when Whanganui overthrew another attacking lineout, and when working out of their half, Malimole punched a grubber kick through and Pedley dashed up to swoop on it and with two defenders on top of him deftly flicked the ball off to Matai to sprint away to the corner.

As the long-expected rain finally arrived, Whanganui secured what proved a scant consolation try as following an attacking scrum, the pack carried to the tryline, and then the ball went wide to an overlap for Robinson to give Hemi and untouched ride into the corner.

King Country 34 (K Foote 2, A Matai 2, Z Wickham-Darlington tries; P Hedley pen, 3 con) bt Whanganui 17 (J Bogileka, R Salu, M Hemi tries; E Robinson con). HT: 17-5.
 

By Jared Smith