Avalon And Poneke Seeking Second Wins In Key Third Round Clash

Poneke will be hoping for more benign conditions at Fraser Park when they tackle Avalon in this week's Club Weekly feature match. Conditions were dire at Kilbirnie Park last week when they scraped out a 17-6 win over defending champions Petone. But for the Red and Blacks, who had previously suffered four defeats in a row, it was a win and four competition points in the bag. Avalon also registered a crucial first win by beating Tawa 28-5 last week, so both sides head into this clash in a similar position.

Regular Jubilee Cup contestants Avalon will be anxious to repeat their 2003 and 2004 semi-final appearances again this year, after missing the playoffs and finishing sixth last season. Two years ago they narrowly beat Poneke in the final regular season round to qualify second, before losing to them the following week at Fraser Park in their knockout encounter. Poneke's loose forwards were instrumental in the 17-6 scoreline that day.

On this occasion though Poneke will need to keep Avalon's star halfback - No. 8 duo of Peter Sciascia and Thomas Waldrom quiet. Sciascia in particular is having a stellar season. With seven tries and 91 points so far he also currently leads The Dominion Post Best and Fairest Player standings. Another key contest will be in the tight exchanges, with both packs possessing powerful and dynamic front rows, backed up by hugely experienced locks. A further indication of the expected closeness between these teams is their round three clash, won by Poneke 12-11, with first five-eighth Brad Cooper landing four penalties.

In other games, Marist St Pats and Tawa will both be searching for their first wins to stay in contention for the playoffs. Tawa faces the unenviable task of trying to find a way through Northern United at Porirua Park, whilst MSP will have an equally arduous challenge against Old Boys-University at the Prime Finance Basin Reserve. MSP will quickly realise that OBU have improved considerably since these sides last met in the first round, when MSP had no problems in seeing them off 34-3. Tawa will need no reminding of the task ahead of them, after finding themselves on the receiving end of a Norths rampage when they fell to them 0-47 three weeks ago.

In the other round three fixture Petone face a clinical Hutt Old Boys Marist at the Hutt Recreation Ground in a repeat of their local derby from April when HOBM took home the McBain Shield by 24-13. It's been a stilted season for Petone to date, who have yet to find any real rhythm, and this game is crunch time for them if they want to defend their crown.

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