Horowhenua-Kapiti blow 12-0 lead

BY BEN STRANG

Horowhenua-Kapiti opened its Heartland Championship rugby campaign with a loss on Saturday, against a star-studded King Country side in Te Kuiti.

With players such as former Samoan international and Counties-Manukau first five-eighth Tana Vili lining up for the Rams, H-K faced a tough task, but started superbly.

"In the first half we pretty much dominated King Country," coach Charlie Rudd said. "I was actually very pleased with the performance, and the way we conducted ourselves on the pitch."

H-K's breakthrough came after 28 minutes, when flanker Gary Phelps crossed the line after a charge-down just inside the opponent's 22-metre line.

Fly-half Josh Hamilton extended the lead to 12-0 shortly before the halftime interval, picking up a loose ball and scoring a runaway try. Hamilton converted his try to send the visitors into the break in a positive mood, but that was shattered 30 seconds into the second spell, when a King Country charge-down allowed centre James Hemara to cross and boost the host's spirits.

"We had 39 minutes to recover from it and get our minds back onto the game, but we let it slip," said Rudd.

With about 15 minutes remaining, Hemara crossed for his second try, and with Vili's boot on song, the Rams took a 14-12 lead. Vili then knocked over a 50m penalty to round off the scoring, and give King Country a winning start to their campaign.

Rams coach Brett Coombe said his side were expecting a big, tough Horowhenua side, and got more than they had bargained for in the match.

''We were quite bad in the first half, but they used the ball very well when they had it, and strung together good sets of possession.

''They were bombarding our goal line for the final five or 10 minutes of the game, but my boys held out well.''

H-K host defending champions Whanganui this Saturday at 2.30pm at the Levin Domain.

- Kapiti Observer