Wins for Wellington Pride, Development, U13s as Centurions U18s win title

Above: The Wellington U13s leapfrogged the Auckland U13s in the main game on Jerry Collins Stadium this afternoon, winning 43-24.

There were wins for young and old in representative rugby involving Wellington teams today.

Senior representative sides the Wellington Development and Wellington Pride both had comprehensive wins in their away matches.

The Wellington Development team defeated their Hawke’s Bay counterparts 59-31 in Napier in their second match of the four-game campaign.

The Wellington Pride defeated the North Harbour Hibiscus 50-10 away in round five of the Farah Palmer Cup, to book a home semi-final spot with a week to spare.

In Ashurst, the Wellington U18 Girls beat the Hawke’s Bay U18 Girls 56-17.

The Centurions U85kg team had a 32-3 win over the Waikato U85kgs in Palmerston North to win the Gallon Cup, 

In Masterton, the Wellington Centurions U18s beat the Wairarapa Bush U18s 50-10 to win the Hurricanes U18s Shield.

This is this side’s first win in this competition for 28 years, after being beaten finalists to the Wellington Samoans last season.

The Centurions were fast out of the gates and raced to a 19-0 lead after as many minutes, extending this to 31-5 by halftime.

They built on an all-round dominant performance in the second 35 minutes, with second five-eighth Sam Clark, centre Sage Shaw-Tait and openside flanker and captain Alex Faifailoa all scoring two tries.

Fullback Ish Perkins, No. 8 Epi Sailo and lock Sene Fa’aosa also played well.

For Wairarapa Bush, No. 8 Harry Mckay scored late in the first half and Jack Eschenrach scored a consolation try.

In the first game at Jerry Collins Stadium, the Wellington Community U18s finished their season with a 36-19 win over the Wellington Samoans U18s to finish third in the Hurricanes U18 competition.

The Community U18s had first use of a moderate northerly and flew to a 26-7 halftime lead. The Samoans briefly came back, but poor discipline and the fact they were backing up after playing the Fijian U18s on Thursday night saw them run out of puff and the Community side kept their noses ahead in a stop-start second half.

The Community U18s scored the first try in the 10th minute through flanker Logan Ariu-Woolley, to which the Samoans U18s replied with a 70 metre try when wings Oscar Schmidt-Uli and Esera Andrews outpaced the defence on the outside.

The Community U18s went back-to-back to score the next two tries and lead 19-7 after 26 minutes. Loosehead prop Sonasco Crichton crashed over after a build-up while centre Reon Paul made a break following the next kick-off and hooked up with left wing Sheik Karim who scored the try. Lock Hugo Plummer scored next for the Community side a few minutes before the break.

The Samoans opened the second half with a 90 metre try from a defensive scrum and a second try to left wing Esera Andrews.

The Community U18s scored twice more throughout the middle stages of the second half, with blindside flanker Josh Mallon and No. 8 Flynn Crampton the try scorers that. The Samoans scored their third try five minutes from the end when replacement halfback Setefano Paese tapped and ran a free kick from a scrum.

The Wellington U13s defeated the Auckland U13s 43-24 in the second game at Jerry Collins Stadium.

Auckland scored the game’s first try and three of the last four tries, but Wellington won the game with a six-try scoring blitz in the middle stages that saw them take a 36-10 lead with almost 15 minutes still to play.

Playing with the wind advantage in the first half, Wellington replied to Auckland’s early try with an equaliser in the 11th minute, following some hot stepping by fullback Tenga Pickering and fast hands to Mark Tyrell on the left wing.

Wellington struck 10 minutes later when first five-eighth Jacob Duncan, one of the smallest players on the field, laid on a pass to starting second five-eighth Ietitaia Campbell off an attacking scrum and the latter cut through to score.

From the next kick-off, Wellington centre Jack Su’a made a big break but was brought down just short of the line. From the next 5-metre scrum, blindside flanker Patrick Solomoma broke open and lunged at the line and No. 8 Zion Opetaia-Tiatia dived over from the next phase.

Wellington burst back on to attack and punished an Auckland defensive error, leading to lock Sini Gray scoring to make it 26-5 at halftime.

Wellington opened the second half with a decisive try from the opening play off the kick-off.

Regathering possession, Wellington moved the ball to the shortside and Campbell took off field past halfway, drew the final defender and presented a runaway to right wing D’Mitrius Rere. This put Wellington ahead 31-5.

They were in again just a couple of minutes later, right wing Rere crossing the whitewash for his brace, to make it 36-5 and the game was as good as over.

Auckland scored their second and third tries after a period of pressure and turnovers inside the 22, closing the gap to 36-17 and a possible comeback was on the cards.

But Wellington pulled clear once more through Matofai in general play, putting them ahead 43-17 with 10 minutes to play.

Auckland had the final say, their left wing running in the 11th try of the match with fulltime closing in.

For Wellington, their work at the breakdowns was outstanding all match, while their lineout was much better than Auckland’s.

Individually, Campbell’s size and skill in the inside backs proved telling, openside flanker Mana Dudley-Kiikoro and No. 8 Opetaia-Tiatia were both standouts, while tighthead prop Jared Kuresa was industrious all match.