Pre-season: Makos massacre in Murchison Makos 101 West Coast 0
HANGER-ON: Makos wing Peter Betham offloads the ball during Saturday’s hit-out against the West Coast in Murchison.
The Tasman Makos wrapped up their pre-season match buildup for the ITM Cup with a massacre at Murchison on Saturday, a 102-0 thrashing of West Coast in what amounted to little more than an opposed training run – and even the opposed bit was questionable on occasions.
It wasn’t the hard, testing encounter that would have been more ideal as the Makos prepare for Friday’s ITM Cup opener against Canterbury in Nelson, but assistant coach Leon MacDonald said it was better than nothing.
The match, played in beautifully fine conditions, ended as a structured game after 30 minutes, the last 30-minute period spent practising match scenarios against a West Coast team that were physically and skill-wise light years behind their opponents.
As MacDonald said, it was two different divisions of players against each other and it was a mile away from what they’ll encounter against Canterbury.
There were 16 tries in all. Bryce Heem, in his comeback match from injury, bagged a hat-trick and Waratahs wing Peter Betham, wing James Lowe and hooker Francis Smith got doubles.
Skipper Andrew Goodman did the first-half goal-kicking and landed six from seven attempts with Hayden Cripps doing the job in the second half, slotting seven from eight.
The only injury of significance during the game was suffered by wing Mitchell Scott who hurt his ankle.
The Makos play Canterbury at Trafalgar Park at 8.05pm on Friday
