Bonus point wins for Norths and Tawa in opening round

Neighbouring clubs Northern United and Tawa emerged as the two bonus point winners from an exciting opening weekend of 2010 Swindale Shield rugby, with co-defending first round champions Northern United overpowering Jubilee Cup winners Marist St. Pat's 54-26 and Tawa running past Wainuiomata 39-23.

Elsewhere, there were narrow first-up wins for Poneke over Oriental-Rongotai (20-18), Hutt Old Boys Marist over Upper Hutt (34-26), the Wests Roosters over Johnsonville (19-12) and a 20-20 draw between Norths' co-defending champions Petone and Old Boys-University.

Individually, Norths' Buxton Popoalii scored the season's first hat trick, while six players scored two tries and three goal kickers banged over 15 or more points.

At Kilbirnie Park, Poneke reclaimed the Jim Grbich Memorial Shield against neighbours Ories - but only just after Ories had scored their second try of the contest with two minutes to play to hit the lead at 18-17.

But Ories conceded a penalty from the re-start and Poneke first five-eighth Sam Rasch stepped up from 40 metres to kick the match winning penalty with the final act of the game.

Earlier, Ories had held a 13-8 lead at halftime after having first use of a stroppy wind. Ories built their lead on centre Paulo Aukuso's 60-metre intercept try and two booming penalties to prolific first five James Proctor - the second from almost his own 10-metre mark.

Rasch nudged Poneke ahead to 17-13 through three penalties, before Ories scored their second try against the run of play after reclaiming a dropout 22 and working their way up field 80 metres.

Old Boys-University's new Academy players Hanipale Galo and Lima Sopoaga each scored tries in their side's 20-20 draw with Petone at Nairnville Park, in which none of their four tries scored from out wide could be converted.

Petone led 15-10 at halftime, after tries in the midfield to second five Michael Lealava'a and from a lineout drive to blindside Bradley Shields against tries to Galo and lock Ian Kennedy, both in the corner.

Sopoaga scored a scorching solo try, again in the corner, and Petone hooker Eugene Smith drove over to make it 20-15 to the villagers, before Kennedy scored his second out wide towards the end to even the ledger up.

A feature of the match for Petone was their use of four left wingers throughout the match. Starting left winger Sam O'Leary left the field after a nasty head clash with teammate and lock John Cleland and replacements August Collins (wrist) and Quin Lima (leg) also departed the field leaving Tim Nanai to finish the game on the left wing.

Petone's opponent next week, Tawa raced to a four-try 20-0 lead early against Wainuiomata at Lyndhurst Park, before Wainuiomata came back to within a converted try behind by halftime.

But Tawa's early lead was enough and they eventually won the Chris Stirling Cup with some breathing space. Flanker Fillisione Koloamatangi scored two tries, while Hurricane David Smith, New Zealand Sevens star Nigel Hunt and veteran playmaker Willie Lafaele?all scored tries. For Wainui, last year's New Zealand U20 lock Shahn Eru (2) and speedster Jason Love crossed for tries.

A second half comeback by Upper Hutt wasn't enough for any competition points against Hutt Old Boys Marist at the Hutt Recreation Ground. Like Tawa, HOBM opened up a match winning lead early and held on for an opening round victory.

HOBM led 12-0 early through tries to fullback Michael Kingsbeer and wing Elisola Soloa and then 26-5 at halftime through further tries to openside Rhys Sommerville and and second five Alexis Time.

But with free-flowing tries to centre Nua Fono-Hunt, wing Ofa Pongi and fullback Jarrad Chruchwood, Upper Hutt roared back to level the scores up at 26-26. However the Eagles rallied and Time scored his second try and Kingsbeer added a late penalty to deny their visitors a bonus point for their efforts.

The local derby between last year's beaten Hardham Cup finalists the Wests Roosters and newly promoted Johnsonville for the Duncan Cup at Helston Park was billed as a predicted tightly contested affair.

And so it proved, although the stiff northerly howling up the ground dictated the points scoring with the Roosters scoring all their 19 points with its advantage in the first half and Johnsonville all their 12 points when they turned with it in the second half.

Wellington Lions openside Scott Fuglistaller scored the game's only try for Wests and new first five Chris Brown kicked the conversion and added four penalties. For Johnsonville, halfback Denis Sim kicked three penalties and veteran first five Corey Burt, returning from Petone to his old home ground, kicked the first dropped goal of the new season.

It took Norths just over half a game to explode into the 2010 club rugby season and firm up their favoritism for first round Swindale Shield honours in their Jubilee Cup final rematch against MSP at Porirua Park.

In an exhilarating second half of explosive running rugby, Norths overwhelmed MSP with a barrage of five tries and turned a stop-start first 40 minutes on its head to score 33 consecutive points and comfortably bag an opening round bonus point win.

Ahead by just two points a good several minutes into the second half, and with halfback Tomasi Palu having been sent to the sin bin late in the first spell for repeated infringing, Norths flicked the switch and ran away from MSP.

Former OBU and Wellington Lions halfback Palu, playing in his last match for Norths before heading to Dunedin in search of golden rugby pastures, helped atone for his absence with a direct hand in the first of Norths' second half tries. From a scrum in prime position, Palu ran strongly and offloaded to No. 8 Failfili Levave to score near the posts

Two minutes later Hurricanes centre Alapati Leuia was dragged down just short of the line after a spilt MSP ball and hack ahead, but Levave was on hand in support to score his double and in a flash Norths had their bonus point and had extended their 21-19 lead to 35-19.

The fireworks continued when Norths ran in their next try off an attacking lineout, spreading the ball wide through the backs to Popalii to score his second try in the left hand corner to make it 40-19.

Blindside flanker Mana Faraimo beat three defenders in an eye catching run on his way to the line, before Popoalii scored the second of his three tries with a stunning run that had the vocal crowd on its feet and the high-decibel sound system pumping out the hits. This try brought up 50 points for Norths and So'oialo added the extras for a 19-point haul with his boot.

Too their credit, MSP kept attacking until the end, and right wing Julian Tupai scored a well deserved consolation try on fulltime.

There were only limited signs of what was to come throughout most of the first half, both sides making far too many unforced errors and conceding too many penalties.

Re-starts were a shambles, leading to Norths regaining possession from the opening kick-off and So'oialo kicking the first points of the match and MSP responding in kind with the game's opening try to veteran second five-eighth Joe Wright from a bungled Norths clearing kick.

Leiua's first line break of the season in midfield from a lineout led to a second So'oialo penalty and MSP led 7-6 inside 10 minutes.

This was followed by consecutive Norths tries to carry them to an 18-7 advantage after 25 minutes. Faraimo scored his first after a midfield turnover and run up the shortside by Leiua, ahead of Popoalii gliding into the backline and putting the afterburners on to score from another attacking lineout.

But Norths handed possession back to MSP from the next re-start and were fortunate in just conceding a penalty to MSP first five-eighth Fa'atonu Fili instead of a try.

Both teams were guilty of repeated infringements and referee Phil Smith made an example of Palu by sinbinning him late in the half, Fili stepping up from halfway to nail his second penalty.

MSP kicked seven penalties to beat Norths in last year's Cup final and this match appeared to be heading on a similar course when Fili (two) and So'oialo exchanged further penalties and Norths held a slender lead heading into the final 30 minutes.

A feature of this match was the new-look nature of both sides, with both lineups containing many fresh faces to Wellington Premier rugby. MSP started the season with 12 personnel changes from last year, while Norths were fielding just two players in the forwards who started last year's Jubilee Cup.

Some players to look out in the weeks ahead are Faraimo and hooker Aiden Cains for Norths and for MSP returning veteran lock Matt Egan (back from Hawke's Bay) and left wing Ryan Setephano who is making his Premier debut this year after impressing in MSP's Senior One side in 2009.

With the loss of Palu (with Leon Ellison tipped to move in from first five), and other stalwarts such as lock Chris Middleton and No. 8 Anare Koliavu, Norths will welcome back loosies Tui Meavao and Dean Brunsdon in the weeks ahead.

Despite the heavy first-up loss, MSP are sure to bounce back quickly, particularly at home at Evans Bay Park. Halfback Peter Sciascia and first five Fili are both class acts and hooker Ged Robinson leads from the front in the tight.

Harper Lock Shield

Marist St. Pats' defence of the Senior 1 Harper Lock Shield got off to a shaky start with a narrow 18-15 loss to Norths at Porirua Park. In a close finish, MSP rallied late and finished the game attacking Norths' line but were unable to cross for a match winning score.

Avalon made a bonus point winning start to their quest to regain Premier status with a comfortable 44-12 win over Paremata-Plimmerton.

Tawa and Hutt Old Boys Marist were also opening round bonus point winners, Tawa beating Stokes Valley 34-16 and HOBM pipping Rimutaka 33-26.

Elsewhere Old Boys-University defeated Petone 20-9 and Poneke and Oriental-Rongotai fought out a 24-24 draw with Ories coming from behind in the second half.

National Mutual Cup

Wellington retained the Ray "Spud" Lindsay Memorial Shield with a hard fought 10-5 victory over Poneke in the Senior 2 grade. Close wins were the order of the day in the National Mutual Cup opening round, with Paremata-Plimmerton edging out the Wests Roosters 11-5, Upper Hutt beating Avalon 15-10 for the Harper Vine Trophy and Norths scoring four tries in pipping MSP 27-25

OBU and HOBM also won with bonus points. OBU beat Petone 27-5 and HOBM overcame Wainuiomata 38-31.

Fleurs Trophy

The Northern United women's team strolled to a 52-0 win over Wainuiomata to open their defence of the first round Women's Premier Fleurs Trophy. In contrast OBU beat Stokes Valley 12-0 and Petone beat MSP 34-5. Last year's runners-up Eketahuna had the bye.

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