Waimea Bs can’t get over the line

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Nelson took on Waimea at Jubilee Park on Saturday with the winner simply wanting it more.
Perhaps Star & Garter Waimea sat back on the miss-conception that Nelson where a sure win for them but it was obvious from the first blow of the ref’s whistle that no one had told Nelson about that.
The mood for Waimea was set at three minutes gone when Paul Burt lined up a penalty and although he gave it an all mighty thump the accuracy missed – this type of luck appeared to hinder Waimea all game as they spilt ball from inaccurate passing and didn’t have their set piece running on song.
The lineout ball was average to be polite – in fact that’s not correct, awful would describe it better when they simply handed Nelson about 90 per cent of their lineout ball. When Waimea needed to dig in and show some spirit they lost one of the few men showing determination when Nita Laveicihelotu was given a rest for 10 minutes by way of a yellow card.
Many words were spoken at halftime and with the Waimea team heading home towards the clubrooms they should have had some fire in the belly but perhaps Nelson’s halftime team talk was more on key. With five minutes gone in the second half Nelson slotted another three pointer and Waimea felt the blow of first blood in the half like a knife to the heart. Or perhaps it was simply that Waimea where letting Nelson feed off their mistakes and literally handing them the play that made the red and whites drop their head and simply exist in the game for the next period.
What was for certain is that when Nelson forwards created an unstoppable rolling maul for a push over try it was a long way back for Waimea. Luckily the try went unconverted to place the score at 11-0 in Nelson’s favour.
Waimea made some changes and the boys who had made hard work of watching from the bench showed good impact. Play appeared to be on the turn with Waimea seemingly finally acknowledging time was disappearing fast. That was until another yellow card was dished out this time in the direction of replacement blindside flanker Dale Russ. It wasn’t until his return to the paddock that Waimea gained some control, with excellent pick and goes. They were rewarded with a penalty about 30 metres out. This time replacement Sy Keelan faced up but alas no success – score still 11-0 to Nelson.
For the next 15 minutes Waimea fired up and took the ball up front to a tiring Nelson side, with some sustained pressure Waimea finally broke the line after infringements by Nelson gave them a penalty only five metres out – from this distance it’s always going to be hard to stop big number eight Sha’non. Sy converted the try and Waimea hit the scoreboard at 11-7.
Despite Waimea being hard on attack at the final whistle this was it, the final score 11-7 in Nelson’s favour. This Saturday sees Waimea take on arch rivals Stoke at Greenmeadows.