Second round Swindale Shield cliffhangers
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The first of two Swindale Shield night games next Wednesday can’t come soon enough for Wellington’s club rugby fans after a generally tight and tense second round set of matches around the region made for an exciting afternoon today.
Five of the seven Swindale Shield matches were only decided deep into their contests, with the scores at two of the matches all locked up with only minutes remaining.
When the fulltime whistles were blown on a cloudy, mild afternoon, three teams – Old Boys University, Poneke and Northern United and were left standing as having won both of their opening games for 2016.
In close results today, Old Boys University edged out Marist St Pat’s 23-19 at Nairnville Park, Avalon held off the Wellington Axemen 32-29 at the Graveyard, Norths defeated the Upper Hutt Rams 24-23 at Maidstone Park, Tawa beat Petone 18-15 at home at Lyndhurst and Poneke pulled clear of defending first round champions Hutt Old Boys Marist 32-23 at Kilbirnie Park.
In two other results, Wainuiomata defeated Paremata-Plimmerton 27-3 at Ngatitoa domain and Oriental-Rongotai capitalised on home ground advantage to take an 86-3 victory over Johnsonville.
It was 16-16 at Nairnville Park between OBU and MSP when OBU halfback Tomasi Palu kicked ahead for twinkle-toed centre Wes Goosen to regather and scamper away to score what proved to be the match-winner. MSP propelled themselves straight back on to attack and Tyler Tane kicked a penalty to close the gap to just 4 points with time running down.
However, OBU put themselves back down the right end of the ground and closed the contest out to register their second straight win and retain the Jack Lamason Cup.
Earlier, OBU had exploded into the game when their dominant scrum won a tighthead scrum and No. 8 Teariki Ben Nicholas surged 50 metres to set up a 5th minute try to flanker Sam Coventry. Left wing Maile Koloto finished off another long-range movement and OBU led 10-3.
MSP came back into the match with penalties to trail 9-10 at the oranges. OBU extended their lead to 16-9, before Goats replacement Hugh Renton was yellow-carded and Ryan Saunders scored the match levelling try for MSP to set up the tense finish.
It was also 15-15 at Lyndhurst Park with little time left on the scoreboard clock, before halfback Kemara Hauiti-Parapara kicked a match-winning penalty for the home side, to give them their first win and to keep Petone winless after two weeks. Petone had led 15-10 at halftime, but a try to Tawa’s Junior Togia had closed the game up with the second of his two tries and made for a tense second half for both sets of supporters
Poneke retained the both the Bill Brien Cup and Roy John Trophy against HOBM, coming from 15 points down.
Poneke found inspiration when replacement Nick Robertson received an inside ball and sprinted 50 metres to score, closing the Hutt lead to eight early in the second half.
For the remainder of the game, Poneke looked like a different side and went on to keep Hutt scoreless in the second spell as fullback Pakai Turia scored on the hooter to deny Hutt of a bonus point and spark pandemonium at Kilbirnie Park.
Hutt dominated large chunks of the first half thanks to lazy penalties conceded by Poneke handing Hutt easy points and good field position. No. 8 Chris Vailalo scored early in the half and LA Moemai brought his try scoring tally up to four for the season when he picked up a loose ball to runaway for a try and a 17-5 lead.
Two penalty goals late in the first stanza would see Hutt head into the sheds up 23-8 but that was all she wrote for Hutt as Robertson’s try spurred on two Turia tries after Hutt fullback Blake McGregor was sin-binned, sealing an upset victory.
Greg Foe was immense for Poneke, making big metres with every touch of the ball while loose-forward partner Joseph Scheres hassled Hutt at the breakdown. Turia was strong, jigging his way in for a try on the 80-minute mark after scoring earlier off the back of a Foe break.
Hutt’s forward pack was led by hooker James O’Reilly who was strong both defensively and with the ball in hand, which is also where Lui Okeamoa-Luamanu excelled with a few glimpses of Vaea Vifita-like galloping runs.
After drawing with Ories last week, Avalon got up to beat the Wellington Axemen 32-29 at Hataitai, a big result for them. Especially after the Axemen scored two tries and led 12-0 early. Avalon maintained their composure and came roaring back into the match and they led 18-15 at the turnaround. Avalon’s lead was advanced to 25-22 and then to 32-22 with 20 minutes still to play. The Axemen threw everything at Avalon late in the match but couldn’t break through to win.
It was much closer than last week, but Upper Hutt’s fans had little to cheer about at the end of their second straight defeat at home to start their 2016 season.
On the Rams’ Old Timers’ Day, Norths made it two from two with a one-pointer, after earlier skipping out to a 13-3 lead on the back of an Aidan Cains try and then a 19-6 halftime lead through the boot of Perry Hayman. Rams speedster Max Pearson got the Rams back in the match with a try early in the second half, But Hayman scored a try in reply and from there Norths held on, winning back the Terry Farrow Memorial Trophy in the process.
Wainuiomata earned an important first-up win of the season, away against Paremata-Plimmerton in a messy game. Wainuiomata scored two first half tries and led 15-0 at the break. The home side managed a penalty, before Wainuiomata scored twice more to earn a bonus point win. Three of Wainuiomata’s four tries were scored through the midfield, with Marvin Karawana crossing for a brace.
Ories accounted for Johnsonville to retain the Ash Pointon Cup. Ories scored at least 11 tries, with wing threequarters Malo Tuitama (2) and Andy Ellis (2) and fullback Ambrose Curtis (1) running in half of these. Ories led 30-3 at the halftime break and it was for Johnsonville to do but to hang on.
Three city teams – Poneke, Marist St Pat’s and Wellington – remain unbeaten in the 14-team Premier Reserve competition after two rounds.
The Harper Lock Shield followed a similar pattern to the Swindale Shield, with little between the sides in five of the seven matches.
Poneke’s second XV defeated HOBM’s 32-31 in the closest of these fixtures, whilst in a reversal of winners in the main games that followed, MSP beat OBU 20-12, Wellington beat Avalon 27-12 and the Upper Hutt Rams defeated Norths 20-10. Tawa accounted for Petone 27-13 in the curtain-raiser at Lyndhurst.
Paremata-Plimmerton’s back-up side enjoyed a comprehensive seven tries to one win 41-7 win over Wainuiomata. It was only 10-7 after the first 40 minutes of play, but the green and blacks dropped off tackles with regularity and the home team pulled clear.
In the 1.00pm game at the Polo Ground, the home side kept the scoreboard operator busy clocking up a 59-3 win over Johnsonville.
The new-look 10-team Women’s Fleurs Trophy kicked off under lights and drizzle on Friday night, with four comfortable wins and one close result marking the start of the season.
In the closest result of the night, Avalon battled to a 12-5 win over Hutt Old Boys Marist, while defending champions Norths, Ories, Wainuiomata and MSP all opened with bonus point wins.
Norths defeated Poneke 84-7 and Ories overcame OBU 51-0 in a surprisingly big win against the team that finished third last year.
Amongst the new teams, MSP defeated the combined Johnsonville-Tawa side 60-5 and Wainuiomata beat the Upper Hutt Rams 82-0.
In other grades, the U85kg competition is probably the most keenly fought of all, and two of this weekend’s opening set of games showed this.
The round opened up on Friday night with defending champions the Tawa Titans pushed all the way by Johnsonville before winning 10-5.
Eastbourne also won a tight one, beating Poneke 10-3 beside the seaside, while the Wellington Light Axemen beat the OBU Bunnies 33-7 and the HOBM Howlers defeated Stokes Valley 26-5. The Avalon Wolves had the bye.
There was a noted result in the first round of the Mike Copeland Trophy Reserve grade Division 1 competition. In 2015, the Poneke Ruffnuts swept all before them, but they lost 7-10 to the Upper Hutt J8s.
There were opening day bonus point wins to Old Boys University, the Petone Brotherhood the Hutt Old Boys Marist Barbarians and Tawa in the First Grade Thompson Memorial competition.
OBU beat Norths 29-5, Petone beat MSP 30-19, HOBM beat Poneke 29-20, while Tawa won their match against Wainuiomata by default. Wainuiomata have withdrawn from this competition, but will be replaced by Avalon from next week. The other Petone team, the Saxons, had the first round bye.
President’s grade players had their first chance to run off their summer excess, with a full first round of matches for 2016 on Saturday.
Attention now turns to the first midweek round of Swindale Shield matches on Wednesday night, followed by another full round next weekend.