Wellington Pride and Moata’a win Porirua Park silverware

The Wellington Pride and Moata’a were the two big winners from this afternoon’s Porirua Park rugby deciders.

The Wellington Pride beat the Otago Spirit 57-5 to claim the Women’s NPC Championship silverware, while the Hutt Valley Samoans beat the Wainuiomata Samoans 28-26 in the final to win the 2018 Wellington Samoan Rugby Union Village Kings 10-a-side tournament.

Wellington Pride

The Wellington Pride have roared back into the Farah Palmer Cup Premiership ranks for 2019 after accounting for a gallant but overmatched Otago Spirit side 57-5 in the Championship final at Jerry Collins Stadium.

It was a bright start to the match from both sides, with the visitors having the opening say when they worked a large overlap on the left to give left winger Kiana Wereta an unopposed run to the line. The Pride got into their work soon thereafter with winger Monica Tagoai crossing, followed by prop Angel Uila barging over from short range to give Wellington a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.

If Otago’s challenge wasn’t tough enough, it got harder 25 minutes in when they suffered the one loss they couldn’t afford when centre and newly-named Black Fern Kilisitina Moata’ane limped off with an ankle injury; hopefully that won’t stop her getting on the plane on Friday.

Wellington took advantage to cross twice more before halftime through industrious lock Joanah Ngan-Woo and her Ories teammate fullback Timena Tuma’ai, with Amanda Rasch converting both for a 24-5 lead.

Wellington would add another five tries in the second half, as their size and physicality advantage proved telling.

Tighthead prop Janet Taumoli started the parade, with four Otago defenders unable to stop her close to the line, before firstly Tuma’ai and then Tagoai – with a weaving 40m run – each scored their second tries of the day. Skipper Jackie Patea-Fereti got her name amongst the scorers when she strolled over almost unopposed from a lineout move, and Dora Laupola completed events two minutes from time when she became the third Pride prop to touch down. Rasch kicked 6 from 9 conversions from the tee.

Despite the mounting scoreline and the loss of Moata’ane Otago kept at it, but fell at this stage for the second consecutive year. Openside Georgia Mason was a menace at the breakdown, and it was somewhat unfortunate that she went to the bin when referee Brittany Andrew tired of Otago’s indiscretions at the breakdown. Second-five Greer Muir also tried hard and fullback Sheree Hume made several big tackles that were needed.

Although neither got on the scoresheet, the Pride got fine games out of first-five Acacia Te Iwimate –playing her 50th for the side – and centre Fa’asua Makisi, with their teammates the beneficiaries of their work. Patea-Fereti was typically industrious along with hooker Alicia Print, with the replacement front row trio of Rosie Stirling, Laupola, and Elieta Taito delivering a significant impact when they got on. In particular Laupola and fellow replacement Bernadette Robertson delivered fends and bump-offs that got loud reactions from the crowd.

The Pride finish the season having won six of their seven games with their record only blotted by a first-round lost to Hawkes Bay when shorthanded. In particular they were they only side to lower Canterbury’s colours, with the defending champions routing Counties-Manukau 52-29 to claim their back-to-back Premiership titles.    

The Pride also established a new Women’s NPC season points scoring record, tallying 449 season points. The Pride scored 69 tries this season in their seven games.

Village Kings tournament 

Moata’a beat the Wainuiomata Samoans in a thriller to win the this year’s Village Kings Cup final at the end of a hard-fought day-long tournament that was played on the top fields at Porirua Park.

Led by veteran Uale Mai and a group of long-serving Wainuiomata club players such as Greg Lealofi and Isaiah Mamea, the Wainuiomata Samoans leapt to a 19-5 lead at halftime in the Cup final.

Tutasi Masoe scored the game’s first try of the match and also the first try of the second half as the Wainuiomata side extended their lead.

But Moata’a came storming back to close the gap to within a try with a couple of minutes remaining and then score the match-winner under the bar with the last play of the game.

The nucleus of the Moata’a side was Hutt Old Boys Marist players, with Fereti Soloa the Player of the Tournament and Chase Tiatia and Lise Soloa both prominent all day. Other players such as Paulo Aukuso, Villami Fine and Samoan Sevens legend Falemiga Selesele were also leading figures for the side.

Last year’s winners Aiga Malisi, with a heavy Marist St Pat’s flavour, were run down spectacularly in the Plate final by Faleata.

Aiga Malisi held a handy halftime lead but Faleata fought back in the second 10-minutes of play to win 26-24.

The Bowl final was won by the Fijian Warriors who defeated Vaitoloa 33-12 in the decider for fifth place.

Tournament winners Moata’a had beaten Faleata 10-5 in their Cup semi-final, while the Wainuiomata Samoans had seen off Aiga Malisi 17-12 in the other Cup semi-final.

The final placings of the 2018 Village Kings tournament were:

1. Moata’a,
2. Wainuiomata Samoans
3. Faleata
4. Aiga Malisi
5. Wellington Fijians
6. Vaitoloa
7. Hutt Valley Samoans
8. Tanugamanono

The tournament was well run and well officiated as always by the WSRU.