OBU and Petone Key Players In Roller Coaster Round Nine

Wet weather came to Wellington premier club rugby in round nine, and with it arrived a fresh batch of surprise results. Round nine of the Swindale Shield brought more twists and turns, with the race to the title far from decided with two rounds remaining.

Most significant was Old Boys-University’s 27-21 eye-catching win over leaders Northern United at the Prime Finance Basin Reserve. This victory for the students sees them continue their steady climb up the ladder. In the past four weeks they have had a draw and three wins, and have steadily improved upwards from, ninth, eighth, sixth and now to fifth. With a date with Oriental-Rongotai next week they have the chance to keep climbing and secure their place in the top eight with a week to spare.

On form at least, Petone caused another minor upset by beating Poneke 31-15 on their Old Timer’s Day at the Petone Recreation Ground. Following recent lacklustre performances, the Villagers sailed to a 24-0 lead by halftime and then held off Poneke in the second half for a four tries to three win.

Hutt Old Boys Marist put their round eight loss to Avalon behind them with a clinical 64-10 drubbing of lowly Johnsonville at the Hutt Recreation Ground. HOBM ran in ten tries, with fullback Mike Kingsbeer scoring a double on his way to a 24-point haul. Kingsbeer now has 96 points for the season and is poised to become the first player to reach 100 next week. Left wing Michael Pehi also scored a hat trick of tries, and together with a previous four-try haul against Upper Hutt, has now crossed the tryline eight times to be the leading try scorer.

Elsewhere, Tawa showed good commitment in shutting out Avalon 25-12 at Lyndhurst Park, while first half tries to right wing Jope Naubo and fullback Julian Tupai gave Marist St. Pats a timely 15-7 win over Ories at Evans Bay Park. It was all action at Ian Galloway Park where Wests slogged out a hard-fought 5-3 win over Upper Hutt. Returning Highlanders lock Kane Thompson scored Wests try.

The end result from this roller coaster round sees Hutt Old Boys Marist heading Northern United by one point at the top of the table, with Poneke retaining third, despite not claiming any points against Petone, with the Villagers three points back in fourth.

HOBM and Norths meet next week at Porirua Park with the outcome of their match likely to decide the title, while MSP’s win sees them maintain eighth with a six-point buffer to ninth placed Wests in the race for Jubilee Cup spots.

In this week’s feature match at Old Timer’s Day at Lyndhurst Park a fired up Tawa effort up front and a liberal amount of brazen back play paved the way for Tawa’s win over Avalon.

In slippery conditions and with persistent drizzle around for much of the game it was always going to be a willing contest in the tight exchanges between two evenly matched teams. But Tawa’s exciting backs specialise in throwing caution to the wind and like to run the ball at every opportunity. Unlike last week against Wests when it backfired, it paid dividends against Avalon, with their backs combining for two sizzling first half converted tries, helping them to a decisive 17-0 lead at halftime.

Central to their efforts were first five-eighth Malasia Mailo and playmaking centre Willie Lafaele. Mailo consistently ran hard at the advantage line, while Lafaele’s eye for a gap also created problems. Lining up between the pair was second five-eighth TJ Taotua, whose forte seems to be his hard hitting defence, while left wing Junior Togia and fullback Hirini Robin also featured strongly.

It was a Togia midfield injection from inside his 22-metre line that set up the first of these two tries. Togia broke clear into open space and linked up with his support, sending Lafaele away for the try, which he also converted. The second was created from a midfield scrum, which was also a cornerstone in Tawa’s win. From the set-piece, Mailo drifted across the defence, and offloaded to fullback Hirini Robin. Robin put through a well-weighted chip and chase over the tall head of his opposite Andrew Turner and regathered to score his seventh try of 2006.

Tawa carried this momentum into the second half, with Lafaele stopped just short of the line after running on to a lovely Mailo pop pass, before a break by Togia up the left hand touchline forced a 5-metre scrum. Avalon were then reduced to 14-men with the sinbinning of prop Kepi Faavai for collapsing the scrum. But Tawa couldn’t capitalise, missing several drives at the line, a penalty in front and a dropped goal.

Tawa finally scored their third try through hardworking No. 8 Iona Fuatai, after they pushed Avalon off a defensive scrum and forced the turnover. This made it 22-0 and the game was seemingly safe for the home side.

However Avalon, aided by the injection from the bench of rested key players Jason Goble, Mo Schwalger and Finau Hopoi, came back with a try to halfback Peter Sciascia. Lafaele then kicked another penalty to restore a twenty point lead for Tawa at 25-5. The remaining 12 minutes were all Avalon on attack, with Tawa halfback Filipo Palepua and Mailo both sinbinned. Despite this, Avalon could only manage one further try to right wing Mafa Tuluauau.

By Steven White