Late penalty gets Eagles home against Paremata-Plimmerton

Above: Will Mangos makes a break for it for Old Boys University against Marist St Pat's in the Swindale Shield this afternoon.

Paremata-Plimmerton went within moments of toppling the unbeaten Hutt Old Boys Marist Eagles at the Hutt Rec this afternoon. But a last-gasp penalty saved their Eagles and they won 20-18 to register their sixth straight win of the 2018 Swindale Shield.

Defending champions Old Boys University moved into clear second with a 32-17 win over Marist St Pat’s at Evans Bay Park, ahead of Poneke who defeated a battling Johnsonville 25-15 across the road on Kilbirnie 2.

In the other close match of the sixth round, the Upper Hutt Rams beat Wainuiomata 26-22 at home at Maidstone Park for the Peter Jones-Dave Ritchie Cup, to record their second straight win after a month of defeats.

Petone occupies fourth spot on the ladder moving into the next round of matches this coming Wednesday after beating the Avalon Wolves 28-5 for the Morgan Family Trophy at Fraser Park.

Northern United beat Tawa 27-14 at Jerry Collins Stadium and Oriental-Rongotai overcame the Wellington Axemen 47-19 to retain the Alby Jack Memorial Cup at the Polo Ground, with left wing Andrew Ellis scoring a hat-trick in the 7 tries to 3 win.

Norths reclaimed the Sammy Saili Memorial Trophy with their win over Tawa. Despite having the weight of possession and territory it took Norths 32 minutes to break the deadlock through TK Bishop, with fellow winger Junior Time-Tautoa adding a second as the homeside built a 17-0 lead leading into the break.

Tawa needed to respond after the interval, but were put on their heels when Time-Tautoa scored his second. Tawa closed the gap to 8 with converted tries to Kalim Kelemete and Peniasi Tokakece, but the final say was left to Norths replacement prop Gerard Faitatoa who barged his way over. The biggest cheer however came when Likiliki Silaga ran over the top of Tokakece.

Despite the win Norths were guilty of too many 50/50s and turned over the ball on many occasions when in good attacking positions, particularly in the first half. Tawa were their own worst enemies, and their day was summed up by Jacob Mua knocking on a quick tap 5m from the Norths line to end the game. Kienan Higgins had an outstanding game, with four line breaks in the first half alone.

Old Boys University retained the Jack Lamason Cup with their resounding win over MSP at Evans Bay Park. 

The hosts suffered their first loss in a month and a malfunctioning lineout was a major Achilles heel. OBU was able to dominate territory with locks Paddy Carter and Agustin Escalona enjoying towering games.

OBU rushed out to a 20-0 lead after half an hour. Will Mangos, Sam Coventry and Tomasi Palu were particularly dominant with ball in hand as they scored three unanswered tries. Teariki Ben Nicholas and Palu were among the Billygoats to cross the strip.

MSP openside Tom Horan tried to inspire a red resurgence when he scored two tries shortly before and just after halftime, following a long break for a medical incident involving a spectator. The latter five-pointer was a candidate for try of the season. Horan fended and weaved past several defenders in an inspired 65-metre burst.

However, an MSP mistake from the kick-off allowed the Billygoats to swing onto attack and Coventry to cross for his fifth try in three games.

Much of the second-half was a fumbling affair and it was Maile Koloto who pounced on a loose ball to settle the contest. Koloto burst up the right wing touch line before finishing in the same corner a few phases later.

MSP fullback Andrew Wells had the last say when he broke through traffic near his 22 and rushed the remainder of the field untouched. 

Over on Kilbirnie Park, home side Poneke earned a bonus point win over Johnsonville in a scrappy game in exposed, windy conditions.

After conceding the game’s opening try to Poneke fullback Nick Robertson, who latched on to a kick and chase in broken play, Johnsonville came back to score the game’s next two tries.Entertaining ball playing loose forward Api Naikatini and left wing Romu Senileba both found the chalk for the Hawks as they strung together some good passages.

But discipline was once against their undoing, losing right wing Royce Tonumaipea to the sin-bin just before halftime and in the next several minutes Poneke kicked a penalty and scored two tries to turn a 5-10 deficit into a 20-10 lead. A Johnsonville dropped ball was scooped up by Poneke’s back who fed Greg Foe a try and then immediately after the break centre Alex Morrissey crossed in the far corner.

Johnsonville re-grouped and quickly hit back with left wing Senileba running in his brace. A long period of scrappy play finally resulted in Johnsonville losing another player to the sin-bin and Poneke soon sealing victory with a chargedown try to flanker Api McMillan-Parata.

It wasn’t pretty, but Poneke will go into Wednesday’s clash against HOBM with confidence.

Harper Lock Shield

Northern United and Marist St Pat’s remain in front and unbeaten after six rounds of the Premier Reserve competition.

Norths beat Tawa 46-15 and MSP beat OBU 53-31.

Poneke are third after accounting for Johnsonville 67-12 in the early game on Kilbirnie Park, while Petone smoked Avalon 70-7, the Upper Hutt Rams beat Wainuiomata 39-12, Ories beat Wellington 39-18 and HOBM defeated Paremata-Plimmerton 46-26.

Women’s

Defending champions Oriental-Rongotai stepped out to play for the first time this season after having the bye last weekend.

Any signs of rust were soon shaken off and a scrum turnover inside Petone’s 22 resulted in the game’s opening try to try-machine Ayesha Leti-l’iga on the left wing.

Petone built pressure and matched Ories at the breakdowns and general forwards exchanges, Wellington Pride captain and lock Jakie Fereti-Patea leading the way and flankers Hope Hakpoa and Precious Auimatagi both snaffling turnovers. They went wide to left wing La Winitana and she scored out wide where her relation and 1970s Petone men’s wing Vern scored plenty of times in his playing days.

There’s no shortage of confidence in this Ories team and, with returnees Amanda Rasch and Bernadette Robertson in the backs, along with Leti-l’iga and halfback Reijeli Uluinayau, and ball running forwards such as captain and prop Raylene Lolo and loose forwards Jonah Ngan-Woo and Tina Paulo, they are going to cause trouble.

Breaking out of their own territory, they got back down into Petone’s 22 and Robertson scored to put them in front 10-5.

Another scrum turnover resulted in Rasch making a ghosting run up the shortside and scoring their third try. Moments before halftime, Leti-l’iga ran scored a 50 metre counter-attacking try and Ories were up 22-5 at the breather.

Tighthead prop Janet Taumoli won a ruck turnover and halfback Uluinayau scored for the first of her three second half tries. Rasch scampered away to score her brace and Leti-l’iga completed her hat-trick as Ories went on to win 51-19.

At the Te Whaea artificial turf Norths continued their winning start, seeing off the OBU Impalas 53-31, with no fewer than 14 tries scored.

Norths led 20-17 at the break playing into the wind, but it wasn’t until the last 20 minutes that they finally subdued OBU who closed to 31-32 at one stage. Aimee Sutorious was a menace at the breakdown and scored a double, as did fellow veteran Brenda Collins and winger Paris Leilua-Va. OBU's best was midfielder Larissa Lima with winger Jess Offen dotting down twice.

Hutt Old Boys Marist pushed Marist St Pat’s close in another spirited game. HOBM led MSP 19-14 at halftime at the Hutt Rec, but MSP pulled clear with the wind in their favour to win 35-19.Second five-eighth Monica Tagoai scored her second consecutive brace.

Paremata-Plimmerton had their second win of the competition, beating Avalon 29-17 at Ngatitoa Domain. School-aged halfback Milly Mackey and left wing Jamie McIntosh both scored two tries.

Les Mills Colts

Big winners last weekend, defeated the next. The OBU Colts went down 10-17 to their Marist St Pat’s counterparts at the Evans Bay Park Artificial today.

OBU exerted set-piece dominance, but MSP outshone them in the loose and Xavier English and their No. 8 both played well. The game remained scoreless until deep inside the first half until the Kid Goats scored a textbook lineout drive try to take a 5-0 lead.

MSP’s halfback and left wing were both sharp on attack and a break involving both ended in a high tackle and OBU’s halfback being yellow carded. MSP kicked a penalty to trail 3-5 at the interval.

Now with the wind at their backs, the home team took the lead when they went wide to their No. 8 who motored up the sideline to score first after the break to give MSP the lead that they never relinquished over the remainder of the game.

Defending Colts champions Petone earned their second bonus point win, defeating the Upper Hutt Rams 24-10, while Northern United won a free-wheeling encounter over Tawa 59-31.

On Friday night, Hutt Old Boys Marist Green kick-started their season with a 31-20 win over Oriental-Rongotai at Te Whaea.

HOBM clinched the game with two quick-fire tries early in the second half, both started from their own side of halfway and both involving kicks in play. Leading 12-8 at halftime, the Junior Eagles ran back a kick in broken play and caught out the cover defence then they scored a runaway bonus point try, chasing up their own kick and receiving a kind bounce.

Throwing caution to the wind, Ories regrouped through their big ball runners and hit back with a pair of tries themselves with the HOBM fullback in the sin-bin. But he soon returned and HOBM galvanised. With five minutes to play, an Ories defender was yellow carded and HOBM pounced to score the match-sealing try,

HOBM had taken a two tries to one lead into halftime playing against the wind and on the back of a dominant scrum and superior lineout. However, it was a defensive Eagles lineout error that led to Ories pouring through and scoring the game's first try. HOBM replied when their first five-eighth latched on to a wild Ories pass in the wind and ran 40 metres to find thechalk. 

Ories kicked a penalty, but HOBM re-took the lead with rumbling forwards try after a penalty and kick into the corner and a multi-phase build-up. 

There were big wins for Avalon, Paremata-Plimmerton and Johnsonville in the Division 2 JRD Cup Colts competition. Avalon beat OBU White 48-24, Paremata-Plimmerton beat Wainuiomata 44-8 and Johnsonville beat Wellington 63-0. The fourth round in this set saw Poneke defeat OBU Black 31-15.

U85kgs

The lightweight competition kicked off this afternoon, with defending champions the Wellington Axemen defaulting to Paraparaumu.

Recent champions the Tawa Titans beat the HOBM Howlers 33-21 and last year’s championship runners-up Avalon met Wainuiomata.

In other results, Johnsonville beat MSP Red 41-19, the OBU Bunnies pipped the Wests Roosters 17-13 and Eastbourne beat the Upper Hutt Rams 27-11.

First Grade

The two teams unbeaten and on maximum points after three rounds of the Thompson Memorial Trophy are Old Boys University and the Hutt Old Boys Marist Barbarians.

OBU beat Marist St Pat's 31-17 today and HOBM beat the Stokes Valley Chiefs 41-10 in the latter's first outing of the year.

Stokes Valley B beat Avalon 45-15, Petone met Tawa and Poneke had the bye.