Wins for Wellington U19s, Centurions over Samoans and Maori as school teams bow out

Above: Fereti Soloa scores one of his three tries for the Wellington Samoans. Soloa and HOBM teammate Jordan Gillies for the Wellington Maori were both key protagonists in the two Hutt Rec games today.

There were wins today for the Wellington U19s in the Central Region Shield and the Centurions Development over the Samoans and Wellington Maori teams in the Hurricanes Development Shield and Festival Cup competition, while all four of Wellington’s school teams bowed out of national contention in their Hurricanes region knock-out matches.

The Wellington U19s were the day’s biggest winners, beating the Hurricanes Heartland U20s 66-26 in Palmerston North, registering their second straight bonus point win of the competition that doubles as the National U19 tournament seeding series.

The Wellington U19s led 19-12 at halftime, but sailed clear in the second spell to win comfortably. They scored 10 tries in total, lock Taine Plumtree, replacement hooker Tane Te Aho and replacement outside back Rueben Va’a all scoring braces.

At the Hutt Recreation Ground, the Wellington Maori beat the Manawatu Evergreens (Development) side 35-21 in the first match and the Centurions Development pipped the Wellington Samoans 31-28 in a thriller in the second encounter.

In club rugby, the Upper Hutt Rams and MSP Internationals sides met in the Reserve Grade final for the John Davies Cup. Result pending.

In school rugby, the boys teams went into the day overcooked following last Sunday’s brutal Premiership final and the girls team was undercooked with a general lack of rugby contributing to their downfall in their toughest match of the year by far.

Last Sunday’s Wellington champions St Pat’s Silverstream fell to last year’s national champions Hastings Boys’ High School 14-31 at Porirua Park (report below), while runners-up St Pat’s Town lost by the same score, 14-31, to Napier Boys’ High School. Town had gone into this match missing a handful of players that played in the final, including No. 8 and captain Keelan Whitman who was out with concussion.

In the Hurricanes girls final, defending national champions St Mary’s College lost 33-38 to Manawatu school Manukura in the Hurricanes region final. Manukura will represent the Hurricanes in the Top 4 tournament in a fortnight on home soil and play 2016 champions Southland Girls’ High School in their national semi-final.

Wellington’s fourth school in action today was Aotea College, who missed out 10-53 to Feilding High School in the Hurricanes Co-ed Cup semi-final. Feilding will play Wairarapa College in next week’s Hurricanes Co-ed final after the latter beat Manawatu College 28-27 in the other semi-final.

Wellington Centurions (31) v Wellington Samoans (28)

It was joy for Josh Houston-Tupou and the Wellington Centurions and heartbreak for the Wellington Samoans on fulltime after the free-running Upper Hutt Rams hooker had chased a loose ball and hack ahead from 50 metres out all the way to the whitewash to score the winning try with a couple of minutes to play.

In general play following a Centurions scrum set down inside their own 22, the ball was jarred out of a tackle and kicked ahead. This kick was weighted to perfection and the happy Rams rake beat a scrambling Fereti Soloa and Losi Filipo to the loose ball and scored.

There was still time to play and the Samoans got themselves back down inside the 22 and set themselves up to re-take the lead, but scrambling defence saved the day for the Centurions and they held on to win their second straight match.

On a few minutes before Houston-Tupou’s bombastic match-winning try, the Samoans had thought they had taken victory when replacement halfback Carlos Price nudged over a penalty to put them ahead 28-26.

This in turn was after Samoans flanker Parekura Lalaga had been binned for a high tackle and the Centurions went wide after a subsequent scrum, second five-eighth Dale Sabbagh ripped a flat pass out to right wing Adam Preston and Sabbagh converted to put them ahead 26-25.

A frantic final 15 minutes or so had started with Samoans centre Filipo slicing through traffic to score to put the Samoans up 25-19.

Earlier, the Samoans right wing Fereti Soloa had scored a hat-trick of tries, which included an intercept try to start the game’s scoring, a try out wide after some classy lead-up work involving second five-eighth Isaiah Petelo and a nicely taken try in the corner following an attacking scrum centre field and a right-side attack from first phase.

Down 0-12 after 20 minutes, the Centurions scored from their best chance of the match thus far, openside flanker Daven Candy coming up with the try following a penalty and lineout in the corner and several phases of play. First five-eighth Pakai Turia’s conversion closed the gap to 7-12.

Turia made a big break in broken play, leading to a try to centre Willie Fine and a 12-12 scoreline just before halftime.

Fili closed out the first half scoring with a penalty, putting the Samoans up 15-12 at the turn.

Wellington Maori (35) v Manawatu Development (21)

The first match at the Hutt Rec failed to reach the same heights.

The Wellington Maori had the game won with 15 minutes to play when centre Jarrod Adams burst through after a 70 second build-up to score to put them up 28-16.

HOBM openside flanker Jordan Gillies had a terrific game and when he scored his second try soon after it was 35-16 and game over. The lead-up to this try perfectly summed up an underwhelming performance by the Manawatu Evergreens who were error ridden throughout and struggled for continuity of any sort against the physical Maori outfit. It resulted from a fumble by their inside backs from their own scrum ball 40 metres, a turnover and three phases later a soft try to Gillies up through an unprotected ruck.

Manawatu hit back with a 95 metre try on fulltime, but it was of consolation value only.

Earlier, Evergreens halfback Tom Stewart had scored all his side’s early points, with a try and two penalties to see his side lead 11-7 at halftime playing into a moderate wind.

Jarrod Adams had scored the only try of the first half for the home side in the 18th minute. That was the last of the scoring in the first half, but the Maori should have turned at least one of three chances in the first half into points. Twice they had Manawatu under all sorts of pressure in the far corner and then, right on halftime, Gillies went desperately close to scoring the grandstand corner after another break by Adams and fast recycling.

The Maori started the second half as they finished the first, and following a penalty and solid scrum, Gillies dived over a ruck to score and put the Maori ahead 14-11.

Two minutes later, Manawatu’s backs broke down from first phase off a scrum (again, see above), the Maori turned the ball over and right wing Oakley Edmonds scored to push the lead out to 21-11.

Manawatu lock Ian Burmeister spectacularly soared high and won the next kick-off, resulting directly in the game’s next try. But 16-21 was as close as they got as the Maori found another gear and kicked clear again.

Hastings Boys’ High School (31) – St Pat’s Silverstream (14)

Defending National Champions Hastings Boys’ High School are a win away from having the chance to defend their top four title after a convincing 31-14 victory over St Patrick’s College, Silverstream at Jerry Collins Stadium.

Hastings set the tone from the outset retaining the ball for perhaps 20 phases and stretching Silverstream from side to side before first-five Latrell Ah Kiong found an inevitable hole.

The ability of the Hastings forwards to break the advantage line was telling and quick ball had Silverstream in frequent retreat.

Hastings lost the ball over the line from a lineout maul, but blindside Donovan Mataira didn’t make the same mistake from more sustained pressure as Hastings doubled the score.

Silverstream looked useful enough with ball in hand, especially No.8 Luke Mannix, but careless mistakes were costly. Wing Fritz Raysai was taken into touch three times in possession.

Moments before halftime, Hastings won a scrum penalty five metres out from the Silverstream line and chose a lineout from which hooker Damarus Hokianga scored from a clever switch by lock Emil Crichton.

Down 19-0, Silverstream threatened a second-half fightback when they scored first. A 30-metre charge by Iona Apineru earned Silverstream a 5-metre scrum from which centre Scott Svenson crossed.

However Silverstream’s discipline lapsed and second-five Mika Fifta was yellow carded for a high tackle.

Hastings employed width with their one man advantage and a bust by lively winger Joeli Rauca set up openside Connor Wadley.

Silverstream prop Chris Hemi played with plenty of passion and two busts, one over 40-metres, created a try for reserve halfback Swayde Brightwell.

With five minutes remaining Silverstream was down 24-14 and won a penalty on their 22. Riley Forbes kicked the ball dead and Hastings sealed the deal when Ah Kiong completed a brace, retrieving his own chip and chase.

Ah Koing played with flair and authority and added three conversions to finish with a personal haul of 16 points.

Hastings captain Liam Udy-Johns is a classy No.8. Powerful with ball in hand, Udy-Johns does his share of defensive work and is an adept lineout jumper.