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Wellington Centurions pipped by North Harbour U85kg in one-off match

Paul Potiki U85kg Div1 | 29 September 2014 | Club Rugby

The Wellington Centurions U85 kg side took on the North Harbour team in Taupo on Saturday in a one-off match.

A couple of late withdrawals on the Friday saw the Centurions team travel up with a final squad of 20 players.

The weather in Taupo was good and playing on a great surface at Owen Delany Park was ideal.

North Harbour asked for the match not to be weighed and they were coming into the game on the back of four lead up games in the previous four weeks only losing to Auckland and this probably showed in the opening quarter of the game.

Harbour kicked an early penalty before they broke through out wide to run around and score under the posts, and then another penalty made it 13-0 after 15 minutes.

The Centurions then missed two relatively easy penalties while Harbour kicked another two which gave them a 19-0 lead at the break.

Basic errors really cost the Centurions in the first half, which was frustrating but highlighted the team not having played together before.

The Centurions had made a lot of good play but with passes not going to hand and lacking patience they struggled to build any momentum as Harbour kept the scoreboard ticking over.

Ten minutes into the second half Harbour missed a penalty but almost immediately after got an intercept try from about 30 out to extend their lead to 26-0

From here though the Centurions started to get some phases going and strong running saw them hammering the Harbour line before prop Ross McIsaac charged onto a pass in midfield and went over for a try.

Halfback Declan Hay then made a break and grubbered past the fullback only to be tackled without the ball with no one in front of him, which could be argued was a penalty try and/or yellow card but was only deemed a penalty.

From here the Centurions continued to attack and Declan got the try he deserved earlier by diving over from a ruck on the line to make it 26-14.

A Centurions clearing kick out of their 22 was taken near halfway by the Harbour fullback who ran it back and busted through the line then proceeded to break another couple of tackles before offloading to an unmarked support player who dived over next to the posts.

The Centurions still continued to attack and a busting run by centre Korey Skipper saw him offload to wing Zak Nichols who managed to power his way over.

Then almost immediately from the kick off the Centurions spun it wide in their 22 and a skip pass put wing Matt Jackett away with several players in support and he put his foot down before drawing the fullback beautifully to put away Tim Mowbray who was able to score in the corner despite being smashed in a good cover tackle. This made it 33-24 with five minutes to play and that would be the final score.

The forwards worked hard all game and were extremely physical, with lock Jared Martinovich throwing himself into everything and openside flanker James McQuin-Tan having a top match and captain Jack Coles leading the team well.

Wing Matt Jackett got involved from out wide and second five-eighth Tony Natoli hit it up strongly as always.

Player of the day for the Centurions was vice-captain Corey Draper who played halfback in the first half and first five-eighth in the second half where his aggressive strong running caused the opposition problems.

Scores:

North Harbour 33 (3 tries, 3 conversions, 4 penalties) beat Wellington Centurions 24 (Ross McIsaac, Declan Hay, Zak Nichols, Tim Mowbray tries, Matt Jackett 2 from 3 conversions). HT: 19-0 to North Harbour.

?The Centurions team was:

1. Sam Duncan (MSP)

2. Nic Patterson(MSP)

3. Ross McIsaac (MSP)

4. Jack Coles (captain, Petone)

5. Jared Martinovich (OBU)

6. Steve Lack (MSP)

7. James McQuin-Tan (Poneke)

8. Bill Drummond (Eastbourne)

9. Corey Draper (vice-captain, Wainuiomata)

10. Chris Thompson (Poneke)

11. Matt Jackett (Avalon)