Ories on top as Pōneke, Petone and Paremata-Plimmerton leave it late for wins

Dominic Ropeti and Ories attack the line today in their win over Tawa in the Swindale Shield. Photo: Andy McArthur.

• By Steven White, Scott MacLean & Adam Julian

Swindale Shield Round 5 results at a glance:

• Pōneke 41 – Johnsonville 38
• Hutt Old Boys Marist 55 – Wellington Axemen 17
• Wainuiomata 67 – Northern United 22
• Upper Hutt Rams 83 – Avalon 5
• Petone 29 – Marist St Pat’s 27
• Paremata-Plimmerton 28 – Old Boys University 24
• Oriental Rongotai 39 – Tawa 22

Swindale Shield points table at a glance (unofficial): Oriental-Rongotai 25; Petone 21; Pōneke and Upper Hutt Rams 20; Paremata-Plimmerton 18; Hutt Old Boys Marist and Tawa 16; Wainuiomata 15; Johnsonville 14; Marist St Pat’s and Northern United 11; Old Boys University 7; Wellington Axemen 2; Avalon 0.

There was drama and excitement in equal doses in today’s Swindale Shield rugby in town, but least of all the match at the Polo Ground where home side Oriental-Rongotai registered their fifth straight bonus point win to start the season.

Ories beat Tawa 39-22 to become clear frontrunners, ahead of  a group of four teams who are shaping as their likely challengers heading towards the mid-point of the first round competition.

The other three city games all saw close results.

At Rugby League Park, winless double defending champions Old Boys University went down for the fifth straight week, this time missing out to Paremata-Plimmerton 28-24.

OBU came home with a wet sail, scoring twice in the last quarter and then went close at the end to snatch it, but the Hammerheads did enough to hang on to win.

Pōneke pipped Johnsonville for the Galu Taufale Shield 41-38 in a wild shootout at Kilbirnie Park, scoring late to win the match. More on this fixture below.

Visitors Petone were pipped with a last-play try last weekend at Maidstone Park, but were able to hang and close out a tense win today at Evans Bay Park.

Petone went to a match-winning 29-20 lead with about 10 minutes to play, when after a long build-up and multiple phases inside MSP’s 22, they went wide to Hurricane TJ Clarke and the first five dashed for the corner and drew in two defenders before off-loading to wing Lachie Forbes who scored.

With five minutes still to play, MSP hit back with an outstanding team try started from a lineout 40 metres out. First five Tomasi Connor broke the last line of defence and dashed in to score a converted try to cut the lead to 29-27.

But there was no fairytale finish for the home side on their Old Timers’ Day and Petone held on in a tight finish to win the Bil Elvy Shield, that had earlier seen no scoring until 20 minutes before Petone crossed twice to lead 14-0 and then MSP did likewise to draw level 14-14 early in the second spell and then take a narrow lead several minutes later.

Elsewhere, there were three mostly one-sided results in the Hutt Valley, at least on their scoreboards.

The first of these was at the Hutt Rec where the HOBM Eagles were at least a bit flattered by their 55-17 win over the Wellington Axemen – more on this game below.

The second two of these was over the hill at William Jones Park, where Wainuiomata accounted for Northern United 67-22 to win the Al Keating Memorial Trophy.

Wainuiomata won the game 11 tries to 4, with lock Kitiona Leitufia and left wing Ray Va’a scoring twice each and halfback Keanu Kotuhi in his 50^th Premier game also dotting down.

The third was the most convincing win of the day, with the Upper Hutt Rams adding the Harper Vine Trophy to their trophy cabinet for another year with a 83-5 win over Avalon.

The Rams won this one 13 tries to one, with centre Dan Schrijvers scoring a hat-trick of tries and last week’s last-play hero Josh Love compiling a double.

In the first of two matches were at in person, Pōneke was down 38-34 with four minutes remaining when second five Caleb Robson busted through at halfway. With Hawks closing, Robson calmly passed to Nick Robertson who avoided his earlier jitters and dashed 25 metres for his 89th Premier try, and the winner.

Poneke started as frantically as they finished. It was 19-7 in as many minutes with numbers on the back the only difference between backs and forwards. Brotherly props Moses and Noah Tuifao-Galuvao were immense with blindside David Taoipu and lock Maea Tema-Schmidt not far behind in the damage department.

Poneke was unable to maintain the breathless momentum and handling errors aided Johnsonville. Both tries by No.8 Regan Hebert were scored from scrums and Jacob Walmsley gratefully pocketed a length of the field intercept as the Hawks turned with a 31-19 advantage at halftime.

When Johnsonville captain and second-five Finlay Sharp sailed clear shortly after the interval, Poneke seemed toast at 38-19. Ken Kurihara was spotless from the tee with six goals from six attempts.

Instead, the street kids refused to abandon their ambitious approach and the passes started to stick again. Winger Ifeanyichukwu Nnebechukwu sparked the revival muscling over for his second try in the corner.

Evergreen hooker Andrew Jones was perhaps the biggest headline writer in a narrative of turbulent shifts. His first half try was a 25-metre gallop supporting Robson. His second try with 15 minutes to spare was a rush to rival Dane Coles. Three defenders cast aside like debris from Thursday’s storm in a lightning 40 metre surge.

Replacement first-five Jack Greig was worthy of acclaim stepping up with authority and flair after Carlos Hihi departed early.

In the second match attended by this article’s reviewers, the Hutt Old Boys Marist Eagles celebrated lock David Filipo’s 150^th game for the side with a comfortable but often error-sprayed 55-17 win over the winless Wellington Axemen.

Lock Filipo kicked the last conversion of the match on fulltime to the cheers of his vocal supporters. This was after left wing Kapu Broughton-Winterburn had scored two late tries to extend the score. He finished with two tries, as did halfback Nu Muriwai, while second five Kienan Higgins scored a hat-trick.

Being an Axemen supporter must be an extremely frustrating occupation at present, their team firmly rooted to the bottom of the table, but they put together plenty of decent rugby during the course of today’s game to show promise. but it is what else they did that would have Keith Quinn and company tearing their hair out. The Axemen literally blew hot and cold in the space of the same passages of play and were often their own worst enemy.

For their part, the Eagles brought their well-known dominant scrum, although their lineout was often misfiring and there was plenty of disjointed rugby in the backs to match that of the visitors. Nevertheless, the Eagles outscored their opponents nine tries to two.

After leading 24-17 at halftime, the Eagles pulled clear with two quick tries, both runaways, to Higgins and Broughton-Winterburn, and the game was safe with over 20 minutes to play.

Just before halftime, Axemen blindside flanker Jordan Chapman crossed for their second try after a penalty and quick tap to close up the margin at the break, but that was as close as they would get.

Earlier, the Eagles had scored the first try of the game in the opening minutes when they attacked from a scrum 40 metres out, which led to prop Vili Tauofaga making a storming break in his 40^th match of the Premiers and offloading to halfback Nu Muriwai for the opening try.

The Axemen regrouped and from a subsequent scrum near the Eagles’ line. No. 8 Cody Lokotui strolled through to make it 7-7. The Axemen briefly took the lead when first five Isalei Pouvalu kicked a 42 metre penalty.

The Eagles then scored tries in the 20^th and 24^th minutes, to fullback Phelan Rona who collected a kick in general play and ran over 60 metres up the far side to dot down in the corner, and to hooker Noah Krijnen. Krijnen’s try came directly from an Axemen unforced error by their restart not going 10 metres and the Eagles packing down a scrum on halfway.

The Eagles then scored their bonus point try off yet another Axemen unforced error, which saw a penalty kick for touch miss the line and second five Higgins collected it on the fly and ghosted through for a 40 metre try in the same corner as Rona’s had been. This made it 24-10.

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Premier 2

Just one side remains unbeaten in the Premier 2 Harper Lock Shield and that is holders OBU after they beat Pare-Plim 31-17, while Petone were beaten 31-12 by MSP who also leapfrogged them on the table.

HOBM are second without even taking the field today with Wellington a no-show at the Hutt Rec, while Poneke were too strong for Johnsonville winning 36-5. Tawa continued their revival from a slow start beating Ories 56-32, the Upper Hutt Rams got on the board with a 34-12 win over Avalon, and the count was on at Mary Crowther Park as Wainuiomata and Norths came up just short of a ton as the home side won 66-33.

Colts

Plenty of scoring in the third round on the Colts Paris Memorial with HOBM and Upper Hutt unbeaten so far. The Rams were 31-19 winners at home, while elsewhere MSP accounted for Norths 64-22, Ories beat Pare-Plim 36-14, and OBU beat Johnsonville 84-0.

The match of the round however was at the Hutt Rec where home side Hutt Old Boys Marist Green held on for a gutsy 26-25 win over Tawa.

HOBM led 26-10 at halftime, scoring their bonus point try after 32 minutes on the electronic scoreboard clock, but some second half ill-discipline and Tawa, playing with their tails up and with the dying wind advantage, came right back into the game.

At one point, HOBM were down to 13 players on the field, but Tawa could only score two second half tries. The second of these was scored after 73 minutes to close the gap to one point and giving themselves time to produce a match-winner. Tawa couldn’t manage this, and they were also held up over the line three times in the second half.

The Junior Eagles rallied late and it was them who finished the match at the attacking end of the field, and the defending champions closed out the match for their third straight win to start the Colts competition this year.

U85kgs

The Tawa Ducks have one of their won, hooker Matt Treeby, in the NZ U85kg side to play Sri Lanka this weekend and celebrated by coasting to their fifth straight bonus point win of the year today. Tawa beat Eastbourne 29-7 beside the seaside at HW Shortt Park that was a scene of ferocious weather just two days prior.

At Kilbirnie Park, Avalon beat MSP 37-14, the OBU Scallywags defeated Paremata-Plimmerton’s Piranhas 25-21 at Ian Galloway Park and the Wellington Light Axemen defeated the HOBM Howlers 42-12 on Hutt Rec #3.

Women’s

The established order of the Women’s Rebecca Liua’ana Trophy got turned on its head today as unbeaten pair Petone and Oriental Rongotai both lost.

Petone’s first defeat in over a season-and-a-half came at Evans Bay Park, where Marist St Pat’s turned them over 45-20, despite yet another hat-trick from Harmony Kautai and where oddly, not a single kick at goal was successful.

Ories were beaten 52-27 by Norths at Jerry Collins Stadium with Arene Landon-Lane scoring a personal haul of 27 points. In the other matches, Poneke got their first win beating Avalon 44-10, and Wainuiomata left Pare-Plim as the only winless side with a 39-10 win.

The upshot is that with two rounds left, the leading four sides are all on 21 points.

College

Losses for the two Wellington sides playing Hawke’s Bay opposition today. Wellington College were beaten 33-28 at home by Napier Boys’, while Silverstream succumbed 40-26 to Hastings Boys’ in Palmerston North, after being 0-35 down at halftime. The other two sides from last season’s top four played a preseason match here, with Town beating Scots 82-22.

For the remaining First XVs, the task of qualifying got underway, with close results the order of the day in the “Top 8” clashes. Hutt Valley High produced the notable upset, tipping over Rongotai College 20-18 while the margin was the same in Paraparaumu with St Bernard’s beating the hosts 26-24 It was even closer in the middle of Trentham Racecourse with Hutt International edging out Tawa 22-21, while the Battle of the Wairarapa saw Rathkeale open their Wellington account with a 17-12 win over Wairarapa College (more on this game below).

In the “Second 8” clashes, Mana beat neighbours Bishop Viard 29-5, Porirua saw off Kapiti 58-22, and Taita accounted for Newlands/Onslow 43-5. The fourth match was between Aotea and Upper Hutt/Heretaunga but is currently listed as ‘No Result’. The two matches between the better lower XVs saw the Town 2nds beat the Silverstream 3rds 13-12 and Rongotai’s  2nds beat the St Bernard’s counterparts 21-17.

Wairarapa College was the scene of the first of a hoped-for three meetings this year between the hosts and local rivals Rathkeale with the visitors “on debut” in Wellington after exiting the Central North Island competition.

In front of a bumper crowd the newcomers started strong off the back of an early season tour to South Africa, building a 12-0 lead inside as minutes with both tries in the right hand corner. Wairarapa struggled to get any ball in the first 20 and were fortunate not to be further behind but gained a foothold to achieve parity across the remainder of the half and were unlucky not to score themselves. When Rathkeale scored again early in the second the rout could have been on but were perhaps guilty of making some needless changes let the hosts back into the match, scoring once off phase play from an attacking scrum and then pilfering an intercept to tighten it up to 17-12. But Rathkeale finished the stronger and we able to hold out to secure a place in next weekend’s automatic qualifier.

Elsewhere

A big-scoring day in the Manawatu Hankins Shield, particularly for leaders Kia Toa who blasted Old Boys Marist 70-5, while Massey swept Feilding Yellows aside 59-0.

Current minnows Feilding Old Boys-Oroua racked up 33 points but conceded 63 in another loss, this time to Te Kawau, while in was knife-edge close at Colquhoun Park with Freyberg tipping Linton Army 32-31. College Old Boys had the bye.

The two protagonists of last year’s Horowhenua-Kapiti final couldn’t be separated this afternoon at Easton Park with hosts Foxton and visitors Rahui drawing 24-all. College Old Boys won the Battle of Levin 30-12 over Wanderers, while the match between Waikanae and Shannon was postponed, owing to an injury in the first match and a long delay in re-starting at Waikane Park. Paraparaumu, who led going into the round, had the bye.

First-round finals afternoon in Wairarapa-Bush, which saw Martinborough retain the Lane Penn Cup for another summer under the lights at Memorial Park. The holders leaped out to an early 14-0 lead over union champions Carterton, but what ensued was a back-and-forth encounter that kept the scoreboard operators busy. Carterton’s response had them 17-14 up, and then 29-27 at the break, but Marty gradually gained the ascendency and scored three tries to two after the interval to prevail 46-39

In the other matches Greytown thumped Marist 55-15, East Coast nudged out Masterton Red Star 24-21, and Eketahuna finally had luck go their way beating Pioneer 28-26

The competition moves next week into the full round-robin Moose Kapene Cup Championship.