Tawa Deserved Frontrunners Of Jubilee Cup

Tawa?s sensational hot-streak continued into round two of the Jubilee Cup. Their vanquished this week were Old Boys-University, and Tawa lead the Cup standings alone with maximum points from their first two encounters. Marist St Pats are the only other unbeaten team after they edged out Northern United. Avalon created the stir of the round, reversing their 37-18 defeat at the hands of Petone just two weeks ago to beat the Swindale Shield champions in a thriller, while Poneke picked themselves off the Kilbirnie Park quagmire with a thrashing of Hutt Old Boys Marist.

Tawa possess three quality players in their ranks, hooker James Buckland, halfback Nigel Taumoli and midfielder Willie Lafaele, who together are playing a huge role in their success. Buckland, like a class rake, is equally adept in the loose and in the tight. He scores tries on the wing and stands up to the best of tight forwards. Taumoli has excellent vision and his sniping from broken play is outstanding, while Lafaele combines his clever skills with his physical presence. This trio is also ably supported by the committed players around them.

While Tawa?s five tries to two win over OBU at the Basin Reserve was comfortable in the end, they were given a demanding workout by OBU. It is a testament to their character that they managed to pull away from the students just after halftime and have the game sealed up with 25 minutes still to play. Turning into the stiff northerly, with the brooding clouds closing in, and an increasingly resolute OBU pack to contend with, Tawa led just 15-3 at the break. But they resumed with renewed gusto and tries in the 45th minute to Buckland, the 52nd minute left wing Jade Saletele, and three minutes later to Lafaele, stretched their lead to 32-3 and it was all over.

Earlier, Tawa had got off to the best possible start when OBU fullback Shannon Paku fumbled a grubber kick near his line and Buckland pounced for the opening try. A penalty to first five Gene Johnston was soon followed by their second try, scored by Taumoli but created by the forwards, who had set up an excellent platform with cohesive driving and mauling play. OBU?s forwards, inspired by Hurricane Ross Kennedy at lock, were then able to mount some impetus of their own and were unlucky not to come away with more than just a penalty before the break.

At Fraser Park, Avalon?s forwards outmuscled Petone for an emphatic victory. Avalon led 34-18 with twenty minutes remaining, but Petone hung in there to collect two bonus points with two late tries. MSP?s outside backs scored all four of their tries in their hard fought win over Norths, while Poneke bounced back from their horror performance last week to dispatch the fledgling HOBM, with wing Evan Belford scoring another two tries to increase his season tally to 10.