
The Wellington Academy beat their Manawatu counterparts 48-14 in the opening match of the Hurricanes U20s Academy series at the Campus of Innovation and Sport on Saturday.
Scoring highlights from the match below:
Wellington won the match by a margin of eight tries to two, after leading 19-0 at halftime.
In blazing sunshine, Wellington broke a scoreless deadlock and scored three tries before halftime, two from lineout drives in the corner to hooker Joyner Gaualofa and flanker Neru Scheck and one to right wing Francis Mettrick.
Wellington pulled clear after halftime with two further tries, both to captain and blindside flanker Dom Ropeti, to make it 31-0.
Manawatu put themselves on the board when replacement halfback Joggi Viljoen darted from a scrum and dived between the poles, but Wellington scored twice more in quick succession to pull well clear.
Viljoen scored his second try to close the score to 38-14, but Wellington scored twice more to seal victory, with tries to both wings Mettrick and Garry Tuilekutu.
This fixture was the first of three matches between the Wellington, Manawatu and Hawke’s Bay U20s sides as part of the new Sam Doyle Memorial Trophy presented by the Hurricanes Alumni.
The two matches to come are in Palmerston North, with Wellington playing Hawke’s Bay there on 18 February and Manawatu playing Hawke’s Bay there on 25 February.
The teams as listed for this match are below:
1 Senio Sanele
2 Joyner Gaualofa
3 Bradley Crichton
4 Jono Bailey
5 Matolu Petaia
6 Dominic Ropeti
7 Neru Scheck
8 Toby Crosby
9 Sam Howling
10 TJ Clarke
11 Garry Tuilekutu
12 Tofuka Paongo
13 Jack O’Brien
14 Francis Mettrick
15 Chicago Doyle
16 Lennox Easthope
17 Salesa Seumanufagai
18 Ben Kershaw
19 Leon Tuiloma
20 Jeremiah Collins
21 Stanley Solomon
22 Elijah Maene-Lokeni
23 Jackson Wright
24 Carlos Hihi
25 Logan Love
Manawatu
- Malaki Hala-Ngatai
- Vernon Bason
- Feleti Sae Tau’ufo’ou
- John Samuelu
- Lawrence Leung – Wai
- Sam Lyon
- Wiremu Barrett
- Cody Borlase
- Vince Tahiwi
- Isaiah Armstrong – Ravula
- Hayden Cooper
- Darren Faleniko
- Josh Brunger
- Tadgh O’Connor
- Sam Coles
Substitutes from:
- Aloysius Autagvaia
- Darius Mafile’o
- Tutangiora Mafi
- Moses Armstrong – Ravula
- Sam Kane
- Kees Pereka
- Nikora Brown
- Joe Simpson – Smith
- Matt Antis
- Jordi Viljoen
- Ben Harris
- Lafo Takiari – Ah Ching
- Max Hosking
- Jacob Rauhihi – Collis