Wellington Pride reach semi-finals, Wellington Samoans topple Wellington Development

Above: Action from the match between the Wellington Samoans and the Welliington Development side on Saturday.

In two feature representative rugby matches in the Wellington region today, the Wellington Pride defeated the Bay of Plenty Volcanix 27-0 at Porirua Park and the Wellington Samoans toppled the Wellington Development side 26-17 at the Petone Recreation Ground.

In steady rain, the Pride pulled away from Bay of Plenty after leading 5-0 at halftime to seal a four-try bonus point victory and clinch a place in next week’s Farah Palmer Cup semi-finals, leapfrogging Manawatu who lost 22-27 to Canterbury in their last round game this afternoon.

The Pride will head to Pukekohe next week to play top qualifier Counties Manukau in a replay of their semi-final last year, after Counties Manukau edged defending champions Auckland 7-3 today. Auckland will host Canterbury in the other Women’s NPC playoff match.

The Wellington Samoans beat the Wellington Development side three tries to two, after leading 15-5 at halftime.

Left wing Fereti Soloa scored two tries for the Samoans and centre Ope Peleseuma one, while second five-eighth Joyner Key kicked three penalties and a conversion.

For the Development team, right wing Joe Hill scored two tries and first five-eighth Greg Mullany kicked a penalty and a conversion.

It was a good day for the Samoans, with their U18 side winning 46-22 over the Wanganui U18s in Levin. DJ Taoipu crossed for a hat-trick, while Jason Tuitama, William Heather, Tominiko Maiava, Tobias Makisi and Janaia Fuimaono also scored one try each.

The Samoans U18s will play Wairarapa Bush U18s in the final of the TrustBank Central Secondary School Shield next weekend, after the Wairarapa-Bush side beat Horowhenua Kapiti 39-12 today.

Included in other results today, the Wellington U16 A side opened their Don Broughton Shield competition with a 32-5 win over Manawatu A and the Wellington U16A Development defeated Wairarapa Bush 43-8 in the Division B Saracens Cup.

The Wellington Maori Development side lost their final RDO Cup match to Wanganui B 3-46.

The Wellington Pride Development defeated the Wellington Tongan Women 38-0 in the curtain-raiser to the Pride-BoP match at Jerry Collins Stadium, while the Wellington U18 Girls had a pleasing 62-5 win over the Manawatu U18s and the Wellington U13s went down 0-53 to the Hawke’s Bay U14s.

Wellington Pride (27) – Bay of Plenty (0)

The Wellington Pride has won through to the semi-finals of the Women’s NPC after scoring their biggest victory of the season against Bay of Plenty at Jerry Collins Stadium.

In sheeting rain, Wellington scored four tries in a scrappy 27-0 victory.

Despite being held scoreless for the third time in six games this season, Bay of Plenty was genuinely competitive in the first half. They held the Pride to just one try at the interval.

That try was scored by left wing Ayesha Leti-l’iga in the 9th minute, after a probing run from a ruck in general play by halfback Vaine Marsters stretched Bay of Plenty’s defence, and a clever pass out to her wing who dashed up the left hand touchline to score in the corner.

The Pride made further in-roads throughout the first half but the difficult conditions and the competitive opposition put cohesion and accuracy at a premium. It was the visitors who closed out the first half strongly, going close to levelling the scores with their strongest period of pressure all match just before the mandarins.

The rain eased off early in the second half and the Pride took play into the Volcanix’s 22 through a penalty and lineout. The forwards had a crack, before the ball was moved out to fullback Georgia Daals and she crossed in the 45th minute under the poles for their second try. This was Daals’ fifth try in three matches against BoP.

Five minutes later the Pride surged ahead again and prop Brooke Tauaneai went close to scoring a try. A penalty followed and first five-eighth Amanda Rasch converted to extend their lead to 15-0.

Although they never looked like scoring, Bay of Plenty remained in the game over the next 15 minutes. Their loosehead prop Luka Connor was outstanding. Her bustling runs were a source of momentum for the visitors, while No.8 Jessica Foster battled industriously.

For Wellington, locks Sanita Levave and Jonah Ngan-Woo were an abrasive presence around the field and commanding at lineout time, which dominated BoP’s as the match wore on.

The Pride’s reserve halves pairing of Kat Whata-Smpkins and Lizzie Goulden added direction and energy from the bench, reserve prop Mo Aiatu was combative and second five-eighth Mary Ann Collins was direct and creative causing concern for the Bay of Plenty defence.

Eventually, the try scoring tap was turned back on. Right wing Monica Tagoai, in her starting debut for the Pride, dashed up the grandstand touch and was hurled into touch in the corner.

Ngan-Woo won the BoP defensive lineout and the ball was moved wide to Leti-l’iga who slid over for her second try to extend Wellington’s lead to 20-0.

Wellington’s bonus point try was scored just a few minutes from fulltime when Goulden put in a stab kick into the in-goal and Leti-l’iga was on hand again to chase and score her hat-trick.

The most tries by a Wellington player in a Women’s NPC match is four, with Huia Paul (v Otago, 2011) and Helen Collins (v Hawke’s Bay, 2012) both scoring that many in matches for the Pride.