No Change At The Top As Wild Weather Dominates Jubilee Cup

HOBM with ball in hand against OBU at the Prime Finance Basin Reserve
 
The top of the Jubilee Cup leader board remained unchanged after frontrunners Northern United and Poneke battled to a 13-13 draw in their key round five clash, with Norths still two points clear at the top over second placed Poneke. But on a day when more wretched weather dominated all four venues, Old Boys-University emerged as the significant winners, with their hard fought 5-3 victory over Hutt Old Boys Marist propelling them back into the top three, after being in danger of dropping away going into the round.

With the wild southeasterly wreaking havoc across Wellington, it was just as tough going at the two other matches, with Avalon beating a lacklustre Petone 19-10 at the Petone Recreation Ground in another potentially crucial result and Tawa upstaging Marist St. Pats 6-0 at Lyndhurst Park. With a fortnight's play to come, the make-up of the top four is still far from decided.

With Petone coming off two wins in a row, and Avalon two losses in a row, the expectation was of a Petone victory in their clash as they led 5-0 after halftime. But Avalon were more desperate than the Villagers, and with the wind and the elements behind them scored three unanswered tries to hold them off. Scoring action was hard to come by in Tawa, with the home team seeing off MSP with two penalty goals to first five-eighth Malasia Mailo, to keep their flicker of hope alive, and making MSP's derby clash with Poneke next week a must-win for them.

Poneke made the early running in their game with Norths at Porirua Park, with first five-eighth Brad Cooper striking an early penalty, before a wipers kick put through by his opposite Rob Aloe went straight into the clutches of giant left wing Ambrose Plaister, whose resulting try gave Poneke a 10-0 lead with the wind at their backs. With Poneke lock Conrad Pau'u languishing in the sinbin late in the first half, Norths came back with a try to prop George Ape and an Aloe wide angled penalty to close the deficit to 10-8 before halftime. A dogged battle ensued in the closing 40 minutes of play, with Norths capturing the lead 13-10 with their second try to lock Chris Middleton. But Cooper evened it all up with a successful 35-metre into-the-wind penalty late in the contest.

Having the Prime Finance Basin Reserve southerly at their backs proved just as much a hindrance than a help for both OBU and HOBM in this week's Club Weekly feature match. With OBU (first half) and HOBM (second half) unable to take the initiative and use it to their advantage.

Both sides made mistakes with the wind, with rash play, numerous unforced errors and poor goal kicking preventing either side from capitalising. As is so often the case in weather-dominated rugby, it proved easier to truck into than to maintain attacking continuity with the use of it. Consequently, in defending their slender 5-3 halftime lead, and with the halftime ear of a former Athletic Park match winner and coach Dave Loveridge, OBU's increasingly committed forwards adapted better, controlling the wealth of possession in the second half, and finally creating enough field position to go with it to exert pressure on HOBM at their end of the field.

The match had started promising for OBU, with a confident movement resulting in a penalty in front of the HOBM sticks, only for their normally reliable radar rake-man Darryl Gore to miss. An OBU midfield breakdown then allowed HOBM second five-eighth Phillipe Rayasi to slip the tackle of his opposite Seminar Manu and surge upfield, with fullback Mike Kingsbeer slotting a subsequent penalty to give them a 3-0 lead. An OBU dropped ball and a hack ahead by veteran HOBM openside Martin Wallis and some elusive running by first five-eighth Jonathan Bentley gave the Eagles more chances soon after, with only scrambling defence keeping them out.

But it was OBU who produced what proved the decisive score of the game, with reliable fullback Tim Wells finishing off a long-range sweeping attacking movement from a scrum turnover with a try in the corner. Manu atoned for his earlier mistake, with a tremendous in field sidestep near halfway, linking up with centre Paula Kinikinilau and setting up Wells for a well-deserved five pointer for the game's outstanding back.

Manu was also unable to convert a penalty opportunity before the break, giving OBU's 5-3 lead a tenuous at best feel to it, particularly with rain and gloom now adding to the wind gusts now in the Eagles' favour. However HOBM could make no headway in the second spell. Like OBU before them, they started promisingly enough, but couldn't win enough quality possession to match their field position. Kingsbeer twice had penalty chances to capture the lead before the three-quarter mark, with the first attempt dropping short from a wide angle and the second pulled left from a handy position - a strike that probably would have tipped the outcome in their favour if successful.

Instead OBU held on to the ball, with their tight five, led by tireless prop Matt Anderson, together with their usual suspects, such as lock Sam Green and Gore, digging deep to deny the visitors further opportunities. A HOBM sinbinning of one of their replacement forwards and a series of offside penalties and subsequent OBU lineout drives almost giving them a second try, characterised the final passages. In the end the students won a scoreless second half and thus the match.