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Wellington Development miss out to Tasman as age-grade sides win well

Representative Rugby | 22 September 2018 | Steven White

Wellington Development miss out to Tasman as age-grade sides win well

Esi Komaisavai (left) and Villami Fine scored second half tries in a comeback that fell short for the Wellington Development team today.

The Wellington Development team lost the first of their four matches of their 2018 campaign today, going down 39-46 to Tasman B at Jerry Collins Stadium. Tasman led 41-5 at halftime and a second half comeback wasn’t quite enough for Wellington. Read below for more.

Meanwhile, all six of Wellington’s age-grade representative teams in action today won their fixtures.

Starting at Porirua Park, the Wellington U13s defeated the Horowhenua Kapiti U14s 61-19.

Moving up to Levin, which is the new Kapiti Coast and will soon be going off like today’s rugby there, the Wellington U16As beat the Manawatu 34-14 and the Wellington U16s Development beat Horowhenua-Kapiti 64-14 at Playford Park and the Wellington Community U18s beat Horowhenua-Kapiti 81-17 at Levin Domain.

The Community U18s fixture was the curtain-raiser to the Horowhenua-Kapiti – Wairarapa-Bush Heartland match. Ten players scored tries, with starting flanker Saimoni Rasau  from Mana College, second five-eighth Mati Matofai from Aotea College, fullback Maui Wallace from Tawa College and replacement halfback Waylon Tuhoro-Robinson from Avalon all scored braces.

Moving on to Napier, the Wellington Samoans U18s beat the East Coast U18s 60-13 and the Wellington Centurions U18s defeated the Poverty Bay U18s 57-10.

For the Centurions, the tries were spread around by nine different try-scorers. Lock Issac Sailo, flanker Teagan Harawira, No. 8 Epi Sailo, halfback Marino Doyle, first five-eighth Sam Clark, left wing Nathan Tunuvasa, centre Sage Shaw-Tait and replacement backs Elijah Tuigamala and Reuben Pukey all scored tries.

The representative rugby continues on Sunday with the Wellington Pride playing Tasman in Nelson at 11.35am and the Wellington Lions encountering Manawatu in Palmerston North at 4.35pm.

It was a classic ‘game of two halves’ at Jerry Collins Stadium as the Wellington Development side came roaring back to almost steal what would have been an unlikely victory just 40 minutes earlier.

The final score was 46-39 to Tasman B, after they had led 41-5 at the turnaround.

Both sides piled on the points when playing with the use of the wind, which was really no more than a steady southerly breeze, and in fine and sunny conditions.

The game came down to the final scrum of the match just outside Tasman B’s own 22, with the Wellington side coming close to pushing the visitor’s off their own ball and forcing a turnover and having a shot at stealing a draw. But Tasman got the ball back and first five-eighth Sam Briggs hoofed the ball into touch and that was that.

Wellington had scored tries in the 67th, 73rd and 78th minutes to set up the close result, the latter two coming off turnovers and long-range strikes finished off by replacement Norths halfback Esi Komaisavai and replacement HOBM midfielder Albert Polu.

Down six tries to one at halftime, Wellington had hit back with consecutive tries to Ories centre Malachai Unasa and Petone right wing Viliami Fine (two tries) to make it 41-22.

But first half kick-off errors returned, and with Tasman regathering possession and launching a concerted raid and sending left wing Timoci Tavatavawai over for his hat-trick they ultimately did enough to win.

In reality the game was lost well before then.

After conceding an early penalty, Wellington had made a bright start by attacking through several phases off a lineout penalty and Poneke first five-eighth Pakai Turia putting in a well-weighted stab-kick for MSP fullback Andrews to run on to an score off.

The next 30 minutes or so was a highlights reel that the home side would rather forget.

Poor tackling, turnovers in general play and from kick-offs (see above), intercepts and the biggest coach killer of them all, loose passes and offloads to no one or to the waiting opposition player, all played directly into Tasman’s hands and they obliged by scoring the game’s next six tries.

Left wing Tavatavawai and blindside flanker Jake Norris both scored first half braces, while halfback Ben Finau and lock Michael Curry scored their other tries. Currey's try on the stroke of halftime was an intercept and 85-metre runaway.

For their part, the Tasman side were very slick, having been playing together for a few weeks and coming off wins over Otago B and Canterbury B. They clearly relished playing the game at pace and gladly took their chances.

Wellington took a deep breath at halftime and came out with a more measured approach, using their scrum to control the tempo and looking to build phases where possible. Replacements such as OBU and Johnsonville props Jonathan Fuimaono and Tietie Tuimauga clearly made a difference.

Needing to strike back quickly, right wing Fine delivered a final pass to centre Unasa and Turia converted from the sideline. Five minutes later a Fine intercept and run up to within 25 metres of the line soon led to an attacking scrum and a try in the corner to Fine.

Another scrum in centre field led to another try to blindside wing to Fine, working in with Petone teammates, No. 8 Tupou Sopoaga and halfback Carlos Price.

Tasman halted the momentum with their only try of the second half, before Wellington scored again through Fuimaono, then to Komaisavai and then to Polu.

The Wellington Development side play the Hawke’s Bay Saracens in Napier next weekend, a side familiar to many of the players having met them over the past few weeks in the Hurricanes Development series.

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