Premier, Premier 2, Women’s finalists found as Tawa win Paul Potiki Shield U85kg final

• By Steven White and Scott MacLean

The eight finalists have been determined in the Premier, Premier 2 and Women’s grades, while the Tawa Ducks held on to win a three-peat of U85kg Division 1 Paul Potiki Shield titles with a 19-13 win over the Poneke Wanderers in the final.

At Kilbirnie Park, the Ducks saw off a late wave of Poneke attack with a man down to a red card only a couple of minutes earlier. In perfect conditions, Poneke had led 10-0 in the first half and then 13-12 at halftime. Tawa took the lead in the 53rd minute with a close-quarter try in the right corner to bustling No. 8 and captain Troy Howe. This was converted from the sideline by fullback Adam Preston to put them up by six points. The second half remained a tight arm-wrestle and there was no further scoring.

The OBU Scallywags won the Division 2 U85kg final for the Tony O’Brien Shield with a four tries three 32-19 win over Hutt Old Boys Marist at Kelburn Park.

Meanwhile, all four Premier semi-finals were hotly contested, with results at a glance being:

Jubilee Cup: Petone 48-Upper Hutt Rams 40 (extra time) and Hutt Old Boys Marist 43 – Tawa 32.

Hardham VC Memorial Cup: Paremata-Plimmerton 35 – Marist St Pat’s 25 and Wellington 41 – Old Boys University 32.

Next week’s finals will see Petone and Hutt Old Boys Marist contest the Jubilee Cup and Paremata-Plimmerton and Wellington play for the Hardham Cup.

For semi-final results and scorers and next week’s draw visit: https://stats.clubrugby.nz/

The four Premier 2 semi-finals saw the following results:

Division 1 Ed Chaney Cup: Hutt Old Boys Marist 62 – Paremata-Plimmerton 0 and Petone 44 – Marist St Pat’s 10.

Division 2 HD Morgan Memorial Cup: Avalon Wolves 37 – Wellington 13 and Johnsonville 27 – Tawa 18.

Next week’s Premier 2 finals will see HOBM and Petone meet in the Ed Chaney Cup and Avalon and Johnsonville in the HD Morgan Memorial Cup.

It was semi-finals day in the Women’s competition in two divisions.

In the Division 1 Tia Paasi Memorial Cup, Petone beat Northern United 41-17 and Oriental-Rongotai defeated Wainuiomata 43-7.

Division 2 Izzy Ford Cup top four matches resulted in Avalon beating Wellington 54-7 and Old Boys University defeating Paremata-Plimmerton 97-21.

Next week’s Women’s finals will see Petone and Ories meet in the Division 1 decider and Avalon and OBU contest the Division 2 final.

The two Jubilee Cup semi-finals were thrillers and the Petone-Upper Hutt Rams one went for 100 minutes.

It was picture perfect conditions at the Campus of Innovation and Sport, as Petone ended Upper Hutt’s dreams of a first Jubilee Cup title with a 48-40 win in an extra-time thriller. The Villagers scored in the last play of regular time to erase an earlier sixteen-point deficit and piled on two tries in the first extra period to first-five Jacob Waikari-Jones – his fourth of the match – and a second to returning replacement winger Thompson Tukapua, all coming with Rams winger Scott Svenson in the bin for a what proved to be a disastrous intervention on defence.

Playing into the gentle nor’wester, the Rams opened the scoring with a penalty from Liam Slight, but the visitors were the first across the line when with 20 minutes gone halfback Cam Ferreira darted over from an attacking scrum. Slight would narrow the margin up with a second penalty, only for Petone to stretch the lead when Waikari-Jones scored his first in the south-east corner. The Rams though would have the better of the rest of the half, and would take a deserved lead into the break as firstly centre Ieti Campbell pounced on a dropped ball in midfield and beat four defenders on his way to the line, and Slight would kick his fourth goal of the half after Petone fullback Rory Woollett saw yellow for repeated infringements by his side.

With the dying breeze now at their backs and a man advantage, Upper Hutt needed to cash in and they did. A succession of pick-and-goes on the Petone line saw them work the ball right towards the posts, and when they threw it back left Campbell only needed to beat his man to nab his second with Slight adding the extras.

Moments later the Rams were in again, scoring one of the very best tries you’ll see in a sweeping downfield move that saw most of the team get their hands on the ball. The culmination of it saw Senio Sanele – like Campbell someone with a point to prove – shrug off a defender and crash over under the posts. SLight’s point-blank conversion had the home side up 30-14, and the Rams faithful began to dream.

But Petone were far from done. Tukupua, in his first action in well over a year and for a frustrated Woollett, and Lester Maulolo were introduced into the fray as the Villagers responded. They would get themselves back into match when after hammering on the Rams door, Ferreira threw a picture perfect long pass for Waikari-Jones’ second, and would narrow it to just four points when Tukapua went over in the station corner in front of a sizeable number of blue-clad fans.

Slight’s boot remained on song, kicking his fourth penalty from over 40 metres to stretch the margin back to seven as the hopes of both sides hung in the balance. Petone would press and press however, and with time up they went left and caught Svenson offside. The Rams veteran will feel he had no choice, but he didn’t give referee Charlie Harris one either and the winger was dispatched to the bin. From the resulting attack, Waikari-Jones darted over under the posts and his kick from dead in front locked matters up in the last act of regular time.

The two scores in the first period of extra time gave Petone a useful buffer, but restored to 15 the Rams threw everything at it. Unfortunately for them, their best chance in the first few minutes was knocked-on on the goal-line, and the result put beyond doubt when Tukupua stepped up to kick a 30m penalty. Campbell would score his third in the games final act, but it was too little too late.

There was no extra-time needed in the other semi-final at the Hutt Rec, as HOBM took what proved to be a match-clinching 43-32 lead over Tawa with about 10 minutes to play and held on to win and earn their chance to defend the Jubilee Cup next week.

In an entertaining back and forth game, HOBM opened the scoring after just two minutes, but Tawa quickly settled and hit back with two quick tries to go up 14-7.

HOBM scored again to make it 14-12 and then added a penalty and another try to lead 22-14. The tit-for-tat scoring continued apace, with Tawa scoring a third converted try to cut the lead to 22-21. HOBM then again and it was them that tool a 29-21 into halftime.

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After the break, HOBM looked like they might pull clear with their big pack hitting its straps but instead Tawa lifted and kicked two penalties and scored a try to go up 32-29.

The Eagles then scored directly off an attempted Tawa box kick and then were awarded a penalty try to move ahead 43-32. Two yellow cards to Tawa proved tough to overcome. Tawa were almost able to score again with several minutes to play but a HOBM penalty and yellow card ended this opportunity. Tawa also appeared to score out wide but left wing Tesimeta Afamasaga was ruled to not have grounded the ball.

HOBM drove up field out of danger, long enough to ensure Tawa’s last try of the match to Isi Saumaki was of consolation value only and fulltime was soon sounded.

For HOBM, first five Zane Ainslie and fullback Dom Ernst played well, while centre Caleb Robson scored a good try and ran hard, while captain and halback Waylon Tuhoro-Robsinson was a key figure. Lock Ben Tuiomanufili stood out in the forwards.

In the first of the Hardham VC Memorial Cup semi-finals at Nairnville Park, the Wellington Axemen beat Old Boys University seven tries to four.

The Axemen came back from a 10-22 deficit to beat OBU 41-32 and book their place in the final.

For the Axemen, lock Archie Treadwell scored two tries to take his season tally to 16 tries and move ahead of Rupeni Raviyawa as the season’s top try scorer. Fullback Luke Kapene also scored two tries.

Paremata-Plimmerton beat Marist St Pat’s 35-25 to earn their place in next week’s Hardham VC Memorial Cup at home at Ngāti Toa Domain.

MSP scored two consolation tries at the end to make it close on the scoreboard, but Paremata-Plimmerton had the game in the bag well before that courtesy of a third quarter blitz.

MSP had led 13-10 at halftime through two penalties to first five Tomasi Connor, and a try just before the break.

But, turning with a moderate breeze and the lowering sun at their backs, the home side embarked on a scoring spree over the first 20 minutes of the second half to turn that deficit around and lead 35-13.

During this period, they scored four tries and kicked a penalty. They took the lead early after a strong period of urgent attacking play, before going wide to score on the left wing in front of the changing rooms.

First five Dale Sabbagh and others in support used the wind and pinned MSP back deep inside their own territory which soon resulted in their next try to right wing Joe Faleafaga who scored first phase after Paremata-Plimmerton had opted to put down a scrum near the sideline off a penalty. Moments later, Sabbagh kicked a long-range penalty and they now led 25-13.

The Hammerheads then scored back-to-back tries, both from MSP kickoffs. The first of these saw replacement wing Louis Northcott make an incisive burst up towards MSP’s 22, from which Paremata-Plimmerton recycled and went wide to second five Marzy Karim for the try.

It went from bad to worse for MSP when their next restart didn’t go 10 metres and Paremata-Plimmerton packed down a scrum on half way. Off the scrum, No. 8 Jeremiah Avei-Collins popped a short pass to halfback Esi Komaisavai who sprinted 50 metres to score the winning try.

MSP regrouped and relaunched their attack and soon went close to scoring under the posts but were kept out, and that was their big chance gone. A pair of tries at the end was too little, too late.

Earlier, MSP had posted the game’s first points with a Connor penalty. The home side replied with the first try following a big scrum penalty and a lineout in the corner from which they moved it wide and lock Alby Hemopo soon scored in front of the scoreboard to make it 5-3.

Connor replied with his second penalty to put MSP back ahead 6-5, but Paremata-Plimmerton soon scored their second try which should have been a carbon copy of their first after a penalty and lineout in the same corner. Instead, MSP turned it over but in breaking out from their 22 through an intercept pass to No 8 Avei-Collins who poured through to score under the posts to make it 10-6.

MSP took the lead just before halftime with a forwards try scored by No. 8 Ben Higgs after a penalty and attacking lineout in kind, and then went close to scoring again after a big break by halfback Bentley Faulkner, but it broke down and halftime was called.

Conditions could not have been any better at Fraser Park for the HD Morgan semi-final clash between Avalon and Wellington, and the opening passages were very keenly contested.

The Axemen would be the first to crack as they lost a player to bin for a needless cynical infringement, but they held out until Wolves veteran Thomas Kiwara kicked a penalty. Wing Poata Tuisamoa would score the opening try, before the Axemen responded with a Malin Mosedale penalty. Avalon centurion Jordan Aquila – who’s twin brother Jason was playing today in the Horowhenua-Kapiti final – got his name on the scoresheet before Wellington’s Isalei Pouvalu crashed over after a period of pressure and leaving it at 15-10 to the home side at the break.

It took all over 90 seconds for the home side to increase the lead after the resumption as lock Maka Mulikihaamea charged down a clearing kick and was first to the ball. Mosedale kicked a second penalty to keep his side in touch, but their hopes vanished after No8 Vilikesa Tavola was sent to bin for a dangerous tackle. Firstly prop Afisina Luka crashed over, and then halfback Jack Ena produced a cheeky chip-and-chase were he only had Mulikihaamea to beat in the race for the ball. Wellington tried to respond but struggled to get out of their own half, and in the end Lance Tago, who had an excellent game, completed the scoring in the corner by the old HV Marist clubrooms for a 37-13 margin.

Colts

Division 1 Colts favourites Petone and Hutt Old Boys Marist drew 17-17 in the feature Colts match today, to add much interest to next week’s last round set of matches in the John E Kelly Cup.

MSP beat Tawa 45-25 in the other game.

The points table with one round to play ahead of a straight final is: Petone 19, HOBM 17 and MSP 16 – with Petone and MSP set to meet next week and HOBM and Tawa in the other game.

In Division 2 Colts, Poneke beat the Upper Hutt Rams 27-10, and OBU defeated Paremata-Plimmerton 24-21.

The Vic Calcinai Cup semi-finals next week are Poneke (1) v Norths (4) and OBU (2) v Paremata-Plimmerton (3).

The Division 2 Colts fixture at Ngati Toa Domain today was tight, with OBU holding on to winafter Paremata-Plimmerton had taken a 7-5 lead into halftime.

The hero for OBU and the catalyst for their victory was their replacement outside back Isaiah Barry, who scored a hat-trick. His first was an intercept that took away all Paremata-Plimmerton’s momentum early in the second half. His second soon after saw him scoop up a fumble and race through while he created the third with a short-range kick and chase into the in-goal.

Paremata-Plimmerton would soon score through centre Joe Tuala, who had earlier been sin-binned while looking dangerous, but OBU managed to hold on and win.

Reserve Grade

In a Reserve Grade Mike Copeland Cup thriller today, the Johnsonville Cripples got up to beat the Old Boys-University Righteous Pink Ginners 31-29. OBU’s team outscored the Cripples five tries to four, but goal-kicking proved the difference in the feature match at Helston Park.

Wellington beat the OBU 69ers 60-0 and Wainuiomata beat the Upper Hutt Rams Thirstys 36-5 in two more results to hand on Saturday night.

Elsewhere 

Foxton did the Premier and Premier 2 double double today in Levin on Horowhenua-Kapiti Finals Day.

Foxton edged Shannon 24-22 in the Premier 2 Bill Muir Cup final and then beat Paraparaumu 29-24 in the Premier Ramsbotham Cup decider.

Greytown completed the one objective they had for their 150th anniversary season and retained the Moose Kapene Cup as Wairarapa-Bush champions, but only just in an epic final against neighbours and rivals Carterton at Memorial Park. Greytown won 32-29 with both sides scoring four tries, but ultimately a single penalty kick was the difference. Carterton came back from 21-7 down and the final went to extra time.

It completed an excellent day of finals north of the Remutaka’s. Marist upset Tuhirangi for the Senior Reserve Ryan Cup, winning 37-35 in the curtainraiser while on the backfields Gladstone outlasted Eketahuna 35-31 in the subsidiary Presidents Cup. If you add Masterton Red Star’s 29-26 win over Martinborough in last Friday’s Hodder-Steffert Cup final, the four finals were decided by a combined total of just twelve points.

On Friday, the Manawatu Turbos squad beat a Wellington Lions XV 54-35 in Feilding, after leading 33-7.