Wainuiomata and Hutt Old Boys Marist in box seat for semi-finals

It was a tough day at the office for Avalon against Norths, who played some of the match with 13 players following a first half red card and a sin-binning. Trailing 8-14 at halftime, Avalon ran out of puff and conceded another 40 points in the second spell.

UPDATED: Wainuiomata and Hutt Old Boys Marist supporters were basking in the sun this afternoon, following their teams' hard-fought Jubilee Cup wins over Oriental-Rongotai and Marist St Pat's respectively and other results going their way to all but seal their semi-finals places.

Wainuiomata withstood a late charge by Ories to hold on and win 23-20 at William Jones Park, while HOBM, led by 31 points by first five-eighth Glen Walters, the highest individual haul of the season, beat MSP 36-26 at home at the Eagles' nest.

HOBM's fourth straight Jubilee Cup win without a bonus point and Wainuiomata's third win, to go with their 19-19 draw with Tawa, has put both these teams out in front on 16 points? - a full nine points or over two wins clear of fifth placed Oriental-Rongotai.

With three rounds to play, these two teams appear to be home and hosed for semi-finals spots, with at least two other leading contenders still on the back straight chasing top four places.

The two Hutt Valley frontrunners have also opened up a six-point lead to third placed OBU on 10 points, followed by Marist St Pat's on 9, with Ories and defending champions on 7 and Petone and the Upper Hutt Rams on 6.

Old Boys University second five-eighth Greg Mullany kicked the winning penalty with about 10 minutes to play to beat Tawa 26-23 on their home patch at Lyndhurst Park, winning the Bill Brien Challenge Cup in the process. Full report of this match below.

The Upper Hutt Rams grabbed their first win of the second round and inflicted a third consecutive defeat on Petone, winning 27-17.

Six tries were scored in the first half as the Upper Hutt Rams took a 22-12 lead over the Villagers. The Rams raced to a 10-0 lead with tries to fullback Jordan Simpson-Hefft and flanker Josh Hunt. This became 17-5 when wing Joyner Key crossed again for the home side, before Petone fullback Sam McNicol scored and HOBM wing Tupeni Kamakorewa crossed to end a lively first half.

The match tightened right up after the interval but the Rams held on to win. Both these sides are still alive for the semi-finals, but realistically both must win next week to stay in the hunt.

Wainuiomata's big ball running forwards were a key to their win over Ories, who came back to close the game right up with a converted try to centre Paulo Aukuso. Wainuiomata had previously established a 15-0 lead after 30 minutes, with tries to fullback Tayler Tane and flyhalf John Monu.

Walters scored an early converted try under the sticks to give HOBM at 10-0 lead over MSP, and kept the scoreboard ticking over throughout the rest of the match. MSP came back to get their noses in front 20-19 after a try by Aviata Silago, but the Eagles kept pecking and envetually won by 10 points, denying MSP any competition points from the game.

There was also plenty of action in the Hardham Cup today, with Northern United thrashing previously unbeaten Avalon and MSP's B side beat Paremata-Plimmerton to seriously dent the latter's hope of making the semi-finals.

Norths were surprisingly comfortable 54-8 victors over Avalon at Fraser Park, while MSP B overcame Paremata-Plimmerton 33-28.

MSP outscored Paremata-Plimmerton five tries to four, while Norths ran in eight tries against Avalon with returning NZ U20s second five-eighth Jackson Garden-Bachop scoring two tries and scoring 20 points overall.

In the other two Hardham Cup matches, both played in town, the Wellington Axemen defeated Old Boys University B 24-16 at the Graveyard and Poneke accounted for Johnsonville 33-7.

The Axemen beat OBU B four tries to two, with wing Tony Smith scoring a double and pacy OBU Mike Wilson also scoring a double.

A 14-man Poneke, without flanker Galu Taufale for the final 20 minutes of play after being red carded for a dangerous tackle, raced in to score their fourth and bonus point try with just a few minutes remaining. This lifted them to the top of the Hardham Cup points table on 19 points, two ahead of Norths on 17.

The Axemen's second win leapfrogs them above Johnsonville into fourth place behind Poneke, Norths and third placed Avalon.

Poneke accumulated points in the first half against Johnsonville to lead 13-0, before fullback Michael Sage ran back a Johnsonville clearing kick and off-loaded to second five-eighth Ben Huntley who crossed to make it 18-0 at the break.

Poneke extended their lead to 21-0, before Taufale's red card. But Johnsonville were unable to crack the red and black defence, and instead Poneke broke away to score again to make it 26-0. Johnsonville finally scored a try, but Poneke replied with their fourth try.

In the top-of-the-table Ed Chaney Cup Senior 1 clash at the Kilbirnie Park, home side Poneke made no race of it, winning 24-7 and consolidating their hold at the top.

Poneke won the match in the first half, scoring three unanswered tries and going to a 19-0 lead at halftime. Petone came back after the interval but couldn't crack Poneke's stiff defensive line.

The loss for Petone sees them slip from first to third equal, leapfrogged by the Upper Hutt Rams ?who defeated Norths 32-10 in the early game at Maidstone Park.

HOBM are third equal, after beating the Wests Roostes 42-25 at the Hutt Recreation Ground, while the Wellington Axemen stung defending Senior 1 champions Tawa 20-19.

Avalon retain their place at the top of the Senior 2 standings without taking taking the field, beating the Norths third XV by default today.

HOBM are second after beating MSP 33-7, ahead of Petone who edged out the Upper Hutt Rams 25-23 in the battle of the clubs' third XVs. Johnsonville beat Stokes Valley 13-5 in the other fixture.

In Colts Division 1 rugby, OBU Green march on towards the defence of their John E Kelly title by beating Petone Blue. OBU spent the morning at the Vic Uni library before heading down to Kelburn Park to win 45-17.

In two of the Premier 1 First XV matches played this afternoon, Scots College accounted for Naenae College and Wellington College defeated St Bernard's College 40-22. St Pat's Town defeated HIBS 37-3 at Westpac Stadium on Saturday evening and St Pat's Silverstream and Rongotai are meeting mid-week.

In second round Premier Women's Victoria Tavern Trophy rugby, defending champions Northern United came back from an early two-try deficit to lead 22-10 at halftime and 32-17 at the end of the game. Norths won six tries to two, with prop Marley Kelemete scoring twice.

First round Fleurs Trophy champions Oriental-Rongotai beat Avalon 45-15, to keep their unbeaten record for the season intact.

OBU beat Tawa in thriller, by Jack Callender at Lyndhurst Park

In an exciting contest at Lyndhurst Park, Tawa were edged by a gutsy OBU side 26-23.

The Goats were brave on defence, shutting down Tawa's backline to good effect.

The first five minutes was tight, with both sides committed on defence.

However the game opened up when OBU halfback Luke Campbell made a snipe around the ruck and passed the ball to right winger Thomas Brown.

Brown ran strongly but was hit with a high tackle near the line by Tawa centre Alfred Pelenise.

Pelenise was sent to the bin and the Goats were awarded a penalty try, which second five Greg Mullany converted.

With Pelenise in the bin, Tawa began to fire up.

Quick hands out wide saw flanker Sam Tuala coast in for a try out wide.

The conversion was missed and OBU led 7-5.

Towards the end of the first half, Mullany kicked a penalty for OBU after repeated Tawa infringing, and in one of the highlights of the half, the big man mountain of a prop Tolu Fahamokioa ran into space and passed to Wellington Lions prop Taniela Koroi who scored to draw the scores level at 10 all at the break.

Tawa started the second half with a hiss and a roar, scoring immediately in the first couple of minutes. A breakout run from fullback Randall Bishop had the OBU defence in tatters which was a rare sight indeed

Bishop passed to the prop Fahamokioa who sprinted thirty metres to dot down under the posts.

?This was a popular try and the crowd were brought to their feet. The ground announcer was certainly excited.

"What a fit guy" he bellowed over his megaphone to laughs from the crowd.

Mullany kicked another penalty shortly after for OBU and there were signs that Tawa were starting to lose momentum.

Then came the try of the game.

OBU fullback Jesse Johnson ran from deep. On the halfway mark he spotted space ahead, so he chipped kicked ahead of a couple of Tawa forwards who were slow to get back.

The ball sat up perfectly for Johnson as he sprinted in for a try under the posts. The conversion was an easy one for Mullany.

OBU were in front with 15 minutes to go, but began to slightly unravel.

Referee Phil Smith pinged OBU for a shoulder charge and Tawa replacement first five James So'oialo stepped up to the mark, nailing a crucial penalty to tie the scores at twenty apiece.

Moments later So'oialo slotted another penalty and for a little while inside the last 10 minutes, it looked like Tawa would sneak home for the win.

But as OBU built phase after phase and with 5 minutes to go, Tawa conceded another breakdown penalty and a yellow card was shown.

Greg Mullany would be the hero for the Goats in the dying stages of the match.?????

He kicked a monster 40 metre penalty to put his team on level terms with Tawa.

Mullany would kick another penalty with time nearly up as Tawa lost their discipline again.

Tawa battled valiantly in the closing stages and pushed hard towards the OBU tryline. But a mistake forced by the superb OBU defence secured an epic victory for the visitors.

OBU talisman prop Con Williams 100th appearance was celebrated in style and the Bill Brien Challenge Cup was secured.

With Tawa having lost their second game in the Jubilee Cup, they face an uphill battle to make the semis with MSP and Hutt Old Boys Marist to face in the next couple of weeks.

OBU were committed on defence and thoroughly deserved their win. They return home to their beloved Basin Reserve for the next few weeks and are very much in the tightly contested race to make the Jubilee Cup semis.

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