Eagles soar high in another Swindale Shield thriller

Above: Petone's Daniel Kirkpatrick was in hot form on Saturday against Norths on Saturday, scoring a try in the first minute of play and, alongside halfback Nua Fono-Hunt, helping to direct a confident backline. Photo courtesy of Chris Clifton.

The Hutt Old Boys Marist Eagles have emerged on top of a congested Swindale Shield points table after yet another thrilling round of matches on Saturday that saw three of the six match matches decided in the dying moments and two others being desperate struggles that were not entirely reflected on the scoreboards.

HOBM left wing Leka Tupuola was the hero for the Eagles scoring two tries in the shadows of fulltime at the Hutt Recreation Ground to give his side a 27-22 victory over previous joint leaders Upper Hutt. With his side trailing Upper Hutt by five points, Tupuola finished off a length of the field try to see them draw level at 22-22. He then scored again at the end to take the match away from Upper Hutt at the death.

This bonus point win sees HOBM soar to 28 points on the Swindale Shield points table, two points ahead of Marist St. Pat's and Wainuiomata who are now both on 26 following their wins over the Wests Roosters and Rimutaka respectively.

Tupuloa completed a hat trick with his two late tries, matching the earlier double scored by starting Upper Hutt fullback Jason Woodward, who moved to first five-eighth early in the match in place of an injured Ben Aoina. In a hard fought struggle between two evenly matched teams, Woodward was to the fore as Upper Hutt went into halftime leading 17-8. Almost immediately from the second half re-start, Woodward ran in from 50 metres to extend the visitors' lead to 22-8. But the Eagles fought back and scored 19 unanswered points to take the game and re-take the outright Swindale Shield lead.

Marist St Pat's also earned a victory at the death against the desperately unlucky Wests Roosters on their Old Timers' Day at Ian Galloway Park. A gallant performance by the home side against the in-form MSP had scores locked up 19-19. With fulltime virtually up, Wests made a defensive error from a scrum on their own line and visting replacement halfback Peter Sciascia pounced to score the winning try that made it 24-19.

Earlier, Wests had built a 13-5 lead with a wind at their backs scoring a try to centre Taulagi Lepupa and two penalties to goal kicking prop Andrew Newson. After halftime busy MSP openside Sio Tuia scored his second try but Newson kicked two more penalties as Wests led 19-12. Replacement MSP prop Kas Lealamanua converted try leveled the scores up to 19-19 as Wests held on with big defence. However it wasn't enough and Sciascia's try saw MSP retain the Viv Haigh Memorial Shield and also leave the Roosters near the foot of the table.

In another knife-edge result on Old Timers' Day? at Porirua Park, visiting Auckland referee Angus Mabey blew fulltime on the match between Norths and Petone with a 14-man Norths on top of Petone's line and all but over for a try which could have seen the match sewn up in a draw. Instead, Petone hung on for a 27-20 victory. Petone scored four tries for a bonus point win, to put them level on the points table with Norths on 16 points in 6^th equal place.

Earlier, Petone had lit up Porirua Park with an industrious first half of rugby, scoring three tries and leading 20-3 at the break - a lead that should have been more if not for them missing several clear opportunities for more tries. ?Petone sensationally scored in the first minute of play from a botched clearing kick and chargedown and kept their foot on the pedal for most of the rest of the half. With the wind now at their backs, and led by super-sub Dean Brunsdon, Norths came back in the second half to trail 13-20. But their chances were sunk when centre Nene Va'alepu was sinbinned for a high tackle on star Petone flanker Mateaki Kafatolu and Petone subsequently scored the match winning try with first five-eighth and playmaker Dan Kirkpatrick ripping a pass out to the vacant right wing occupied by Belgium Tutagaloa and he crossed unopposed to make it 27-13.

In typical Norths fashion, they came back to score a 90 metre breakout try to close to within seven points with four minutes on the clock. Va'alepu was handed his second yellow card and was red carded when he threw the ball back in frustration on to referee Mabey's face, but Norths kept surging forward and pressed for one final chance to level the scores. Petone infringed inside their 22 and Norths threw everything at Petone in one desperate last play only to come up short.

At Lyndhurst Park, it was home side Tawa that bagged a much needed second win and banked five competition points from scoring four unconverted tries and beating Poneke 20-13. Tawa made it hard on themselves however, missing several kicks on goal that could have proved costly at the end.

Poneke had taken an early 10-0 lead when right wing James Solomon had scored an 80-metre break out try. But for visiting red and black supporters, there wasn't much more to sing about as Tawa scored their first two tries to move to 10-10 by halftime and then scored two more in the second spell to take a well-deserved win. The loss for Poneke, their fifth in seven games, pushes outside the top eight and into ninth place on their own.

At the Hawkins Basin Reserve, defending Jubilee Cup champions Oriental-Rongotai bounced back from their big loss last week at the hands of MSP with an extremely hard fought 21-0 win over Old Boys University, scoring three converted tries. Ories battled to a 7-0 lead into the wind by halftime, with a try to lock Tuakana Metuarau. OBU were making much of the play, but it was Ories who scored again after the break extending their advantage to 14-0. They then scored again towards the end to put the result out of reach of the students. Ories' fifth win keeps them in outright fifth on the points table, while OBU slips from sixth to eighth.

The remaining Swindale Shield ?match of the seventh round saw Wainuiomata earn a bonus point 74-7 win over Rimutaka. Wainuiomata scored five tries and led 31-7 at halftime, before scoring another seven more in the second 40 minutes to take victory. Nine individuals scored tries, with first five-eighth John Monu, left wing Falelima Siinei and centre Isaiah Mamea each scoring braces.

In the Senior 1 Harper Lock Shield, Wainuiomata's second XV were upset 20-22 by Paremata-Plimmerton, relinquishing their lead.

MSP are the new Senior 1 leaders, edging Johnsonville 22-18. OBU have retained third by beating Ories 18-6, while Norths have leapfrogged HOBM into fourth with a 43-33 win over Petone.? HOBM were edged 10-5 by Avalon in an important win for Avalon, while Poneke beat Tawa 29-3.

In the Senior 2 Harper Lock Shield, the Wellington Axemen grabbed their seventh consecutive and celebrated their Old Timers' Day with a 38-21 win over Poneke. The Axemen also won the Spud Lindsay Memorial Shield.

The minor placings remain mostly unchanged. Second placed Upper Hutt beat HOBM 27-17 and fourth placed Norths held off winless Petone 34-21. In three more one-sided results, MSP beat Wests 52-7, OBU beat Ories 42-14 and Avalon beat Stokes Valley 32-10 in their clash for the Roger Mildenhall Cup.

In the Premier Women's competition, Northern United won the first round Fleurs Trophy by beating Ories 73-7. In the other completed match of the round, Eketahuna got up to finish second after beating OBU 17-14. The third match of the round between Stokes Valley and Wainuiomata was postponed for undisclosed reasons.

In college First XV pre-season rugby, St Pat's Silverstream beat Rongotai College 21-0 and Wellington College defeated St. Pat's Town 39-21 in round two of three of the Williment Trophy.

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