Manawatu and Poverty Bay win Hurricanes Youth Council U16 Division 1 and 2 titles

Manawatu and Poverty Bay are the 2022 Hurricanes Youth Council’s U16 tournament winners.

Manawatu won the Division A Don Broughton Shield, while Poverty Bay won the Division 2 Saracens Cup.

In the first game on Finals Day at a cool, windy Campus of Innovation and Sport in Upper Hutt on Wednesday, Poverty Bay and Wairarapa-Bush drew 17-17.

Poverty Bay won the tournament on points differential, based on all matches played throughout the tournament.

Read the review of the two finals on the Hurricanes Youth Council website here: http://www.hyrc.org.nz/news/snow-sunshine-success-at-somme-road-stadium.html

Poverty Bay skipped out to an early 12-0 lead, Wairarapa-Bush came back with a penalty, but Poverty Bay scored their third try to come back to lead 17-3 at halftime.

Wairarapa-Bush scored two converted tries to level it up, and finished the game strongly but were unable to score again, chances including two unsuccessful long-range penalties.

Scoring highlights of that match here:

In the Don Broughton Shield Division 1 Final, Manawatu beat Wellington Gold 29-18.

Wellington opened the scoring with a penalty, but Manawatu ran in two slick tries to lead 14-3. A long build-up saw Wellington score their first try to cut the lead to 14-10. Manawatu crossed for third third try in halftime to lead 21-10 at the interval.

The second half was a tightly contested affair, both teams advancing their scores through penalties and Manawatu led 24-13 with about 10 minutes to play.

Wellington spent some time attacking inside Manawatu’s 22 and they finally scored to close the gap to 24-18. Manawatu held on and they had the final say with their match-clinching try on fulltime.

Some scoring highlights of that match here: