Wellington Centurions, Wairarapa-Bush win U18s titles as Pōneke advance to U85kg final

The Wellington Centurions with the Division A Hurricanes U18s title after their tight win in Napier today.

By Steven White & Scott MacLean

The Wellington Centurions U18s and the Wairarapa-Bush U18s won today’s respective HYCRC U18 competition deciders with victories away from home.

The Centurions U18s defeated their Hawke’s Bay counterparts 21-19 at Napier to win the Division A John Hornal Trophy, while Wairarapa-Bush beat Horowhenua-Kapiti 38-19 in Levin to take home the Division B GNC Cup.

The Centurions and Hawke’s Bay were all square at 7-7 at halftime, before pulling away with two more tries in the second half, both converted by first-five Archie Sims. Hawke’s Bay came back late to make it close but the Centurions ended the game hot on attack and won a penalty and booted the ball into touch to end the game.

For the Centurions, flanker Brandon Lo, fullback William Davis and centre Carisma Faitala were try-scorers.

At Colin Maiden Park in Auckland the Pōneke U85kg side were triumphant in beating the Auckland University Slugs 50-31 in their National Knockout Cup fixture.

Pōneke will play Christchurch’s High School Old Boys in next Saturday’s final in the feature match on Eden Park in Auckland. HSOB beat Pakuranga 23-7 in their semi-final, ensuring a shutout of Auckland teams in the decider.

Pōneke ran rampant in the first half to score five tries and lead 33-7 at halftime.

They scored two converted tries to lead 14-0 after almost as many munutes, with centre Nick Robertson assisting blindside flanker Pasia Asiata for the first try from broken play and No. 8 Troy Howe scoring the next try.

The Auckland team replied with their first try to make it 14-7, which came the way of a penalty try awarded to them off an attacking scrum.

Pōneke then scored tries in the 26^th, 30^th and 35^th minutes. Centre Robertson ran on to a short pass by second-five Adam Preston, before scoring again when Pōneke were held up but then ran back the ensuing goal-line dropout. More continuity of play by the red and blacks sent lock Markus Stowers in for their next try and a healthy haftime lead.

University scored out-wide early in the second spell to cut the gap to 33-12, before second five Preston crashed through from close ran to make it 40-12.

The home team made a determined comeback, scoring consecutive tries to close Pōneke’s lead to 40-26 after 60 minutes.

The game continued to be tight for the next 10 minutes, before Pōneke No. 8 Howe careened over the whitewash for his double and the match-winner. Fullback Max Rogers then kicked a penalty to raise the half century, ahead of University scoring their fifth try just before fulltime.

The Wairarapa-Bush U18s won the GNC Cup with a hard-fought 38-19 win over the Horowhenua-Kapiti U18s in perfect conditions at the Levin Domain.

Wairarapa-Bush were always ahead but it wasn’t until late in the game that their victory was assured, after Horowhenua-Kapiti reeled in a 26-7 deficit with two consecutive tries to trail 26-19 midway through the second half.

Earlier, the visitors’ forwards sought early momentum and were rewarded with the first try in the opening minutes. Unfortunately, they also lost lock and captain Eddie Weatherstone to injury during the scoring of this try.

Horowhenua-Kapiti hit back to score with their first foray into the attacking zone and briefly led 7-5. Wairarapa-Bush dominated territory and possession throughout the remainder of the first half, scoring two more tries including one to hard-running No. 8 Jone Ralulu, and being held up on at least one other occasion, to go up 19-7 by halftime.

The green machine made the perfect start to the second half with tighthead prop Rupeni Koroi scoring from close range for their bonus point try and a 26-7 lead.

The home side embarked on a two-try comeback, but Wairarapa-Bush could see the trophy glinting in the sunshine on the sideline and rallied late to seal victory.

In today’s other two fixtures in the U18s competition, Wellington Samoa U18s beat Poverty Bay U18s 34-18 in Napier in Division A to finish third and Whanganui U18s beat Wellington Māori U18s 29-21 to take third in Division B.

Heartland Championship

The 1.00pm kick-off at Memorial Park might have caught a few people off guard, but those who turned up were treated to a point fest as Wairarapa-Bush and Buller accounted for an even 100 with the hosts prevailing 73-27.

As a contest, it was over at halftime as Wai-Bush led 40-10. They got the scoring started early when after Levi Harmon was brought down illegally on the right flank, veteran Inia Katia profited from the resulting lineout drive. Buller hit back with a penalty to James Blair and took the lead when big lock Caleb Havili crashed over. But that proved fleeting as Harmon and Charles Mataitai were able to make big inroads on the right edge, and No. 8 Folau Finau Vea and fullback Gracyn Evans combined on the left, before Harmon put the Bush back in front. Fiula Tameilau was next across followed by Evans before Harmon – the standout figure of the opening 40 – scored his brace. Finau Vea completed the scoring when he strolled over on the left unopposed, with Jack Delaney knocking over five conversions.

The hosts didn’t let up coming out of the interval as Tameilau completed a hat-trick, profiting on both occasions from good and unselfish lead-up work by Sam Gammie, before the Eketahuna lock strode across for a popular try of their own. Buller showed they weren’t broken as they got a couple back through centre-turned-wing Alex Schupbach and then veteran front-rower Anthony Ellis

The game lost shape in the last quarter, and the hosts found themselves on the wrong end of referee Matt Astle’s whistle. Bench halfback Sam Walton-Sexton nabbed a late double for the hosts with the second gifted to him by Isireli Biumaiwai, but Buller had the last say with a lineout drive, which came after Biumaiwai had been yellow-carded and drew a cheer from those in red and blue as the bonus point it represented just their third competition point of a trying campaign.

The win moves the Bush into joint-second with South Canterbury, after the latter were beaten 41-35 by Poverty Bay in Gisborne. Mid-Canterbury have cleared out at the head of the ladder after their 32-17 win over King Country gave them a perfect 30 competition points, but there’s a logjam behind them. Wai-Bush and South Canterbury are on 22, with Whanganui – 27-21 winners over Horowhenua-Kapiti – and North Otago, who beat West Coast 38-31 in Greymouth, and Poverty Bay just a point behind. In the remaining match Thames Valley smoked East Coast 84-5.

NPC

The Wellington Lions got the job done against the Southland Stags at Porirua Park today with a bonus point boosting win.

The Lions beat the Stags 75-19, scoring 11 tries to three. They led 42-5 at halftime, playing with the moderate breeze in their favour.

Converted wing Callum Harkin scored a hat-trick, while livewire Stanley Solomon and lock Dominic Ropeti both scored tries. Ropeti made a late move to lock after Hugo Plummer failed a fitness test. First year Old Boys University lock Johnny Falloon came in to the match-day 23 on the bench.

This was a record points scoring win against the Stags, while it was their 19th straight win over them dating back to 2002.