Wins for St Pat’s Silverstream, Christ’s College and Nelson College

Above: No way through for Wellington College. Despite several furious second half assaults on the try line by the home team, Nelson College held on to beat Wellington College on penalties in today’s Quadrangular final.

St Pat’s Silverstream beat Rongotai College 22-15 and Nelson College defeated Wellington College 6-3 in this afternoon’s First XV rugby matches involving Wellington schools.

St Pat’s Silverstream have consiolated second place on the WelTec Premiership table behind unbeaten Scots College with today’s Traditional fixture win over Rongotai College.

The seventh and final round starts this weekend with three matches and finishes after the school holidays when Silverstream and St Pat’s Town meet in the final midweek Traditional fixture of the year.

After losing to Wairarapa College 24-27 on Saturday and beating Christ’s College 36-8 on Monday, Wellington College were unable to win their fourth match in five days, against Nelson College, who had beaten Wanganui Collegiate 30-7 on Monday.

Nelson College 6 – Wellington College 3

Nelson College 6 (Matthew Soper 2 pen) beat Wellington College 3 (Kemara Hauiti-Parapara pen). Ht 6-3

For the first since 2002 there is a new Quadrangular champion, after Nelson College defeated Wellington College 6-3 in the 89th final at Wellington College today.

The game was played in bright sunshine and cool conditions and turned into a compelling arm-wrestle between two evenly matched teams.

Nelson started the stronger of the two sides and fullack Tima Faingaanuku burst into the line and created a penalty chance which halfback Matthew Soper kicked to make it 3-0.

Nelson persisted with blindside darts and gradually clawed their way in to Wellington territory and they earned a second penalty which Soper kicked to put them ahead 6-0.

Soper missed a penalty from 30 metres out when he had the chance to extend Nelson’s lead to 9-0. Wellington fought back and Kemara Hauiti-Parapara kicked a penalty on halftime to make it 6-3 at the oranges.

In the second half Wellington College second five-eighth Jimmy Hewitt made two clean turnovers in the tackle as Wellington had a period of pressure inside the Nelson half. Wellington attacked aggressively but were unable to score.

Nelson burst ahead but this time it was Wellington averted danger with a series of scrambling tackles, and it remained 6-3 midway through the second half.

Nelson fullback Faingaanuku made a blemish – misjudging where a kick into touch had landed and took a quick lineout but was ruled to have stepped in touch. Wellington drove forcefully at the line but could not score. They then had 10 phases inside Nelson’s 22 but it all came undone when Nelson won the ball back and made a darting break out of danger.

Both lineouts failed to function effectively all match, Wellington College, especially, were to rue poor set-pieces in this area.

The game was resolved between the two teams’ 10-metre lines and when Nelson openside flanker and one of the game’s standout perfomer Jack Amiehn Nelson kicked the ball into touch in front of the home side’s supporters and started celebrating victory.

Christ’s College 22 – Wanganui Collegiate 0

Christ’s College 22 (Joe Wilkinson, Robert Clifford tries; Wilkinson 4 pen) beat Wanganui Collegiate 0. Ht 3-0.

In the early Quadrangular match, Christ’s College pulled way in the second half to beat Wanganui Collegiate 22-0.

It was 3-0 at halftime but Wanganui Collegiate denied Christs College two legitimate try scoring chances as they defended their goaline grimly. Christ’s took their lead right on halftime when wing Joe Wilkinson kicked a penalty.

In the second half, Wilkinson added two more penalties to extend their lead to 9-0. Wilkinson added another penalty and ran in a try, to give him a personal haul of 17 points, while the other wing Robert Clifford scored another try to seal a convincing win for Christ’s College.

St Pat’s Silverstream 22 v Rongotai College 15

Scores: St Pat’s Silverstream 22 (Asafo Aumua 2, Tone Fauolo 2 tries, Todd Svenson con) beat Rongotai College 15 (Nathan Smith, Tobias Makisi, Ezra Seiuli tries). HT: 10-10.

St. Patrick's College Silverstream came from behind in the second half to defeat Rongotai College in the schools' annual traditional fixture 22-15.

Silverstream quickly recorded a 10 point lead with barnstorming number 8 Asafo Aumua running 25 metres off the back of the scrum to score down the blindside and minutes later, a lineout maul saw lock Tone Fauolo dot down.

Off the ensuing kick-off from the Fauolo try, Stream attempted to get the ball into Rongotai territory through a box kick but Rongotai hooker Karl Brownlie charged it down and fed it off to lock Nathan Smith to register Rongotai's first try.

Moments before the end of the first half, Stream attempted to run it out of their own 22 metre line but after an errant offload went to ground, Rongotai found themselves in great attacking position. The Rongotai forward pack showed great patience attacking the Silverstream line which eventually paid off 15+ phases later with Tobias Makisi burrowing his way over.
Rongotai carried this momentum into the second half, scoring just minutes into the second period to put them up by five points.

However, the home team's rhythm was lost shortly after as they became riddled with errors.
Off a scrum from a Rongotai knock on, Aumua again tore through the Rongotai defense, eventually being brought down just inside the Rongotai 22 metre line. Silverstream were awarded a penalty and elected to run the ball, with none other than Aumua charging over for his second try.

With 10 minutes to go, Silverstream again found themselves deep inside Rongotai's half and, in almost an exact replica of his first try, Fauolo scored again through an impressive rolling maul.
With Rongotai now down seven, they found new life and were attacking the Silverstream line with just minutes to play. It was a nervous few minutes for Silverstream but hardworking blindside flanker Jarrod Harawira won a ruck penalty in a clutch play to all but seal the deal for Silverstream. 

Rongotai hooker Karl Brownlie caused damage with his ball carries and centre Denny To'o made several strong runs but Silverstream's Asafo Aumua was undoubtedly the star on the field, making huge metres with almost every touch of the ball, especially with his runs from the back of the scrum.

With the bonus point victory Silverstream are now well poised for a top two finish going into the holiday break while Rongotai will finish the round robin strong to secure a semi-final berth.