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The Wellington Māori U18s after winning the Division B Hurricanes U18s title at Evans Bay Park this afternoon. Photo: Peter McDonald.
The Wellington Centurions U18s captured the Hurricanes 18s Division A Trustbank Secondary School Shield in a last-play thriller at Lyndhurst Park this afternoon. The Centurions scored a try with the final play of the match to give them a 30-26 win and the title. More on this game below.
The Wellington Māori U18s beat Wairarapa-Bush U18s at Evans Bay in more convincing fashion to win the inaugural Gordon Noble-Campbell Cup Division B title. Wellington Māori got on top early and went on to win 54-19.
It was also the opening weekend of the Hurricanes U16 competition, with a round of pre-tournament matches before the three days in Levin next week.
In Division A matches today, the Wellington U16 Black side beat the Wellington U16 Gold team 29-23 in the early match at Lyndhurst Park and Hawke’s Bay beat Manawatu 24-19.
In Division B encounters, Whanganui beat Horowhenua-Kapiti 62-21 and Poverty Bay and East Coast met in Gisborne.
There was also a non-tournament match at Evans Bay Park between Wellington White and the Wairarapa-Bush U16s with Wellington winning 36-29. Photo above by Andy McArthur. More photos from this game to come.
In one representative match, the Wellington U85kgs met the North Harbour U85kgs in Tauramarunui. They lost this match – final score to be confirmed.
Lyndhurst Park round-up
For the third week a Wellington Centurions team was involved in a last-play thriller. The previous two involved massive defensive plays on their own line on fulltime, today’s one involved a last-play try to win the game and win the 2024 Hurricanes U18 Central Trustbank Secondary School Shield competition.
The try to replacement wing Sean Carter gave the Centurions a 30-26 win over last year’s champions, the Wellington Samoa U18s:
Trailing 23-26 heading into the dying moments, the Hawke’s Bay team 519 km away in Gisborne unknowingly had one hand on the shield as the Centurions needed at least two competition points to take the title.
The win completed an astonishing comeback by the Centurions who were apparently dead and buried at 26-6 down early in the second half. Playing with the increasing wind behind them and continuing their momentum of the first half, the Samoans extended their 12-6 halftime lead to a 20-point advantage when first, second five Dante Ford-Tuveve made a big bust in centre field which subsequently led to replacement prop Ioane Aukusitino scoring, and second, left wing Richard Jones ran on to a kick ahead by first five Jayde Burns and scored.
Instead of rolling over, the Centurions came back with three consecutive tries of their own before they scored the match-winner. The first of these was from a straightforward penalty and lineout drive in the corner.
The second was more spectacular. After winning a turnover on the far side, they spun it wide to replacement first five Archie Sims who placed a cross kick to left wing Hayden Patu who regathered on the full and took off up-field to pass inside to centre Cliff Hunt to score perhaps the try of the match.
The third of their comeback tries followed a minute of solid build-up and then a storming run up the terraces touchline by left wing Patu whose try made it 26-23, but they still needed at least another bonus point to win the title.
Earlier, the game started for the Samoans in fumbling fashion when they conceded a penalty before the game had even kicked off from their over-excitable haka where they encroached over the halfway line. This led to the Centurions’ first points via a penalty to first five Liam Slight before the Samoans had a chance to level with a penalty but were timed out for taking too long over the kick.
That didn’t matter, however, as the Samoans quickly went on the board with their first try. Following a multi-phase build-up they went wide to right wing Wesley Faitele (playing on the left wing) who made a storming run through to score the game’s first try for a 7-3 lead.
The Centurions replied with Slight’s second penalty to make it 7-6.
But the Samoans soon crossed for their second try following another booming break up-field in broken play which led to a scrum inside the 22 and then a try through the forwards close to the line. This extended their lead to 12-6, the halftime score.
Just before halftime, the Centurions had a couple of big opportunities to post more points with a concerted period of play in the 22 during which centre Hunt was held up over the line.
In Gisborne, the Hawke’s Bay U18s beat Poverty Bay 25-10 in their clash to finish second in Division A.
In the first game at Lyndhurst Park, the Wellington Black U16s enjoyed their first win over the Wellington Gold U16s in three years by beating them 29-23 in the opening pre-tournament Hurricanes U16 competition match.
Wellington Black came back strongly in the second half after trailing 12-13 at halftime, then went further in arrears early in the second half when Wellington Gold scored their second try following two earlier penalties.
Wellington Black won the match with three consecutive tries as they kicked into life and came home strongly. Wellington Gold concluded the scoring with a penalty under the posts that gave them a bonus point.
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In Heartland Championship results today, the Whanganui Butcher Boys went temporarily to the top of the table with an emphatic 56-17 win over lowly Wairarapa-Bush at Cooks Gardens.
They move ahead of South Canterbury, who meet Horowhenua-Kapiti in Eden Park tomorrow to complete the sixth round.
In other sixth round matches played today, current second placed Thames Valley crushed 10th place Buller 84-14, while King Country defeated Poverty Bay 49-15, Mid Canterbury beat North Otago 37-19 and West Coast beat East Coast 37-19.
The Horowhenua-Kapiti side meets South Canterbury at Eden Park tomorrow, kick-off 4.35pm and live streamed on their Facebook page.
In NPC rugby, the hearty of Wellington Stadium were treated to a 30-25 win by the Wellington Lions over the Bay of Plenty Steamers.
BoP kicked a death-knock penalty to level the scores up at 25-25, to force golden point extra time. The Lions scored to win through halfback Kyle Preston. Wellington had led 12-8 at halftime.
