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- By Steven White & Scott MacLean
Wellington retained the Hurricanes U19s competition Central Region Shield with a 65-7 win over the Hurricanes Heartland U20s at Porirua Park today.
Playing into the strong wind, Wellington led 34-7 at halftime and maintained their dominance on the scoreboard throughout the remainder o the match. Wellington scored 11 tries including a penalty with left wing Jacob Kennedy scoring a hat-trick and fullback Jacob Denyer scoring two tries.
Wellington won all three of their matches with bonus points, to head second placed Manawatu who edged Hawke’s Bay 8-5 in today’s other match at Palmerston North.
While that competition concluded, another started today, with the Hurricanes U18s Trustbank Secondary Schools Shield competition underway.
Opening day results saw the Centurions U18s beat the Poverty Bay U18s 29-12 in Gisborne, Wellington Maori U18s beat Whanganui U18s 19-7 at Lyndhurst Park, The Hawke’s Bay U18s beat the Wellington Samoans U18s 58-19 in Napier and the Wairarapa-Bush U18s defeat the Horowhenua-Kapiti U18s 71-10 in Masterton.
The Wellington Centurions blew Tasman B away with a late try to win the final home game of their campaign 32-26 at Rugby League Park this afternoon.
Replacement left wing Pose Tuilaepa flew through for the winning try under the posts off an attacking scrum with a few minutes to play to complete a rollercoaster victory in cloudy, blustery conditions.
The try came moments after a likely Centurions attack in the corner had been shut down by the hand of a Tasman defender that was ruled deliberate and he was sinbinned, which led to them opting for the scrum and winning score as shown below:
There was still time to play, and Tasman spent the last couple of minutes of the match hammering away at Wellington’s line, but the defence held up to the end – the match ending with Wellington holding up a Tasman forward over the line.
Earlier, Tasman had first use of the stiff northerly, and led 19-15 at halftime. Following an early period on defence, Wellington broke out for the first time and tighthead prop Salesa Seumanufagai subsequently came up with the first try of the game.
Tasman hit back immediately through a chargedown try off a clearing kick to go up 7-5. Wellington’s restart failed to go 10 metres into the wind, which led to Tasman’s second try to go ahead 12-5.
Wellington broke out again and enjoyed almost two minutes of possession in Tasman’s territory. Following a series of penalties, they finally broke through with lock Hemi Fermanis passing to centre Ethan Webster-Nonu for the try in the far corner.
With five minutes left in the first half, Wellington scored their best try of the match. From a scrum in centre field, they stretched Tasman wide on both sides of the field and hooker and OBU captain Louis Calvert offloaded to left wing Ty Poe for the try in the same far corner to put Wellington up 15-12.
Right on halftime, Tasman scored their second fortuitous try when left wing Jayde Palmer intercepted a pass and scuttled 50 metres to score. First five Cooper Grant converted to give Tasman their halftime lead.
Now with the wind, Wellington started dominating possession and territory, and after another multi-phase build-up, halfback Isaac Bracewell took a quick tap penalty and handed off to Calvert who flew in to score for Wellington, putting them in the lead.
They went back-to-back off a similar attacking scrum to the one at the end, going wide to right wing Todd Svenson who offloaded on his inside to fullback Chicascored in his corner to make it 25-19.
Tasman hit back and went ahead 26-25 with about 10 minutes to play, with their best period of the second half, and lock Daniel Dixon eventually crashed over the line. This spurred Tasman on, and they made another bust from the next kick-off and went close to scoring again, but the last pass failed to stick and the Centurions held on. That was when they made a telling break themselves which gave them field position and then their winning try.
The Centurions conclude their 2024 programme with a match next weekend against Canterbury B.
Women’s NPC
A very productive afternoon under the roof at Forsyth Bar in Dunedin for the Pride, running in nine tries to two in a much-improved performance and one that gives them next weekend off ahead of a home semi-final in a fortnight. Wellington struck early through Drenna Falaniko before Joanah Ngan-Woo – playing her 100th first-class match – crossed. Harmony Kautai and Keira Su’a-Smith both scored in each half with Lavinia Lea, Monica Tagaoi, and Ivana Samani the other try scorers, with Arene Landon-Lane landing three conversions.
Wellington Lions
The Lions started “storm week” in ideal fashion, running out 36-12 winners over Southland at a windy Porirua Park. The hosts had first use of the stiffening breeze and made it count, taking a 24-0 lead into the break, through tries to Kyle Preston, Riley Higgins, Leni Apisai, and a maiden score for Stanley Solomon. It was even-stevens in the second half with each side scoring twice with Wellington’s coming from skipper Peter Umaga-Jensen and the last say through fullback Tjay Clarke. Attention now turns to Wednesday night and Otago under the roof in Dunedin.
Heartland Championship
Smiles for Wairarapa-Bush, as they levered themselves off the bottom of the Heartland Championship standings with a 39-24 win over Poverty Bay away in Gisborne, but scowls for Horowhenua-Kapiti as they got themselves in a 7-29 hole at halftime at home against Mid-Canterbury in a 39-14 loss.
Elsewhere champions South Canterbury beat King Country 33-19, and are now the only unbeaten side after Thames Valley were edged out 16-14 at home by Whanganui. In the other matches East Coast were winners in Oamaru by 18-14 over North Otago, and West Coast have bragging rights west of the Alps after beating Buller 20-17 in Westport.
College
Sacred Heart will return to Auckland as Hurricanes U15 Tournament champions after accounting for St Peter’s College by 33-12 in this afternoon’s final, while Manukura took the Division 2 title by edging out Francis Douglas Memorial College 27-24.
In the rest of the Division 1 matches Silverstream beat Kelston 27-24, Rosmini tipped St Thomas’ of Canterbury 23-19, Feilding edged out Dilworth 27-25, Gisborne were too good for John McGlashan 68-7, and St Bernard’s beat Rangitoto 39-12. In the final Division 2 matches Ngati Porou beat Rongotai 22-19, Aotea beat Mana 14-8, and Bishop Viard beat Mana 31-22.
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Finals Day at the Top is in Palmerston North on Sunday.
Nelson College and Hamilton Boys’ High School meet in the Boys Final at 12.40pm on the Arena, while Feilding HS and Kelston BHS contest the 3 v 4 match on Field 3 at 11.50am.
Howick College and home school Manukura meet in the Girls final on the Arena at 10.30am and Christchurch GHS and Hamilton GHS play the 3 v 4 match on Field 3 at 10.15am.
Above: Hamilton BHS beat Feilding BHS 23-19 in their semi-final on Saturday, but Feilding weren’t without their chances to win, such as this dropped ball over the line in the second half. Photo: Andy McArthur.
Below: Nelson College open the scoring in Friday’s 26-18 semi-final win over Kelston BHS.
