Petone And Poneke Remain In Hunt For Swindale Shield

The Swindale Shield is set to go down to the wire in this weekend?s final round, with Poneke and Petone both still in contention to decide the competition. Both sides are level on 38 points and both will be looking for bonus point wins and then hoping the other stumbles. Poneke hosts Tawa at Kilbirnie Park, while Petone travels to Fraser Park for a match-up with Avalon. If Poneke and Petone are still level on points after these respective encounters then the Shield will be shared

This follows a thrilling penultimate round which saw Tawa win their fifth game on the trot by snuffing out Hutt Old Boys Marist?s brave campaign with a emphatic win. Wing Junior Togia was the main benefactor, scoring three tries and they will fancy their chances to spoil Poneke?s party, especially as their forwards excelled as a unit to clear out from HOBM. Petone enjoyed a seven try, 50-point romp over Upper Hutt, while Poneke were pushed hard by Old Boys-University. OBU were level at 15-15 after 45 minutes, before Poneke pulled away for the victory.

Elsewhere Avalon subdued Western Suburbs. Avalon were far too strong for Wests in the set-pieces and won easily. Marist St. Pats also won convincingly, beating a disappointing Northern United outfit, and Johnsonville and Oriental-Rongotai contested a draw at Helston Park, the scene of this week?s feature game.

While both these sides have had seasons to forget, with Ories? sole triumph being against Wests and Johnsonville winless, this game promised to be a lively, ding-dong encounter. And so it proved, going down to the wire, however neither side managed to gain any real ascendancy over the other. Both teams were guilty of a complete lack of composure, of making far too many basic errors and of showing an inability to hold onto the ball and create pressure. Ories should have used their threatening back three, with its flagship, Roy Kinikinilau, more constructively, while Johnsonville should have played more of a territorial game, instead of running the ball willy-nilly to protect the 19-12 lead they held for most of the second half.

That Ories halfback Pemerika Leiataua managed to scuttle away for a 78th minute try which, when converted from the sideline by first five eighth Miah Nikora, levelled the scores was indicative of the game, which had long since lost its structure. Earlier Johnsonville had raced to a 13-0 lead in even time with two well struck Corey Burt penalties, the second of which brought up his 100th point for the season, and a converted try to prop Matt Pervan. But Ories struck back in style when wing Esava Tiko finished off a sweeping counter-attacking movement started by fullback Andre Pakau.

Johnsonville pulled away again to 19-7, with two further Burt penalties, but Ories scored right on halftime when hooker Eddie Leiataua was driven over, and so it remained until their last-gasp equaliser.