St Pat's Silverstream sail home against Wellington College

Despite being without the services of a host of usual starters, St Patrick's College Silverstream were able to pile on the points at Wellington College today, winning 38-27 in trying conditions.

Wellington opened the account, opportunistically pouncing on an errant St Pat’s clearance which saw Jayden Williams scoot away for the opening try of the match.

Unfortunately for the home side, only a Hauiti-Parapara penalty would be added to their total in the opening stanza of the traditional match as Silverstream ran rampant.

Tarquinn Alatipi completed a first half hat-trick, at times singlehandedly destroying Wellington’s backline with his sheer speed and size.

His first two saw the centre run exceptional lines to wrong-foot the defence and wade his way through several defenders on both occasions, the second from 25 metres out.

Alatipi’s hat trick try produced the play of the game, but this time he had a helping hand. Five-eighth, Kienan Higgins, managed to strip the ball from his opposite in a ball-in-all tackle before expertly chipping the ball into open space for Alatipi to pounce on and canter to the familiar try-line.

Silverstream flyhalf Higgins grew in stature as the game went on and began to attack the line and set up his second try, this time it was second-five Jack Svenson who profited from the playmakers nous, providing a slick offload in the tackle off the back of a strong set-piece scrum.

Silverstream’s 28 first half points looked to be enough, leading their Wellington opposites by a comfortable 20 point buffer.

The mammoth halftime lead was in large part down to the accurate boot of Todd Svenson, the year 11 fullback providing 100% goal kicking accuracy from all areas of the park; these figures even more impressive given the blustery conditions and lack of sure footing the ground provided.

Wellington made a must-needed backline change at the break pushing halfback Kem Hauiti-Parapara into the five-eighth role after he ignited much of the home teams promising play in the opening half.

Silverstream continued in the same vein early in the second-half with a well organised lineout which saw their blindside flanker Jarrod Harawira come away with the spoils after a rolling maul that couldn’t be stopped.

However, soon after the home backline began to hum and it seemed Wellington was on the comeback trail off the back of strong performances from Hauiti- Parapara, Jimmy Hewitt and Toka Sopoaga off the bench.

Wellington camped themselves inside Silverstream’s 22 for a sustained period, holding onto possession and constructing damaging phase play. It was only a matter of time before Sitiveni Paongo burrowed his way across the chalk to ignite the comeback.

Wellington began to play the territorial game. Joshua Morgan-Ranui was the next across the line for Wellington as a black and yellow wave seemed to find their footing in the fixture against some weary Stream defence.

Once again, Wellington made their presence felt with superior territory and possession and capitalised off the back of an attacking scrum that saw an ever-growing line of Sopoaga’s add their name to a traditional score-sheet.

The replacement half scampered his way to the blindside of the scrum, held up the defence, and pinned his ears back to claim the five-pointer himself.

This play sent the home support into a frenzy and with time left on the clock it seemed the comeback was well and truly on the cards.

However, appropriately it would be Todd Svenson to push the score beyond doubt with a penalty drilled through the uprights to seal an impressive traditional win away from home.

Special mention must go to stand-in captain Josh Brown who led his side valiantly all game; strong with ball in hand and even stronger in tackle, Brown was a standout alongside the hat-trick hero.

Scores: 

St. Pats Silverstream: 38 (Tarquinn Alatipi 3, Jack Svenson, Jarrod Harawira tries; Todd Svenson 5 con, 1 pen) Wellington College: 27 (Jayden Williams Sitiveni Paongo, Reece Plumtree, Toko Soponga tries; Kemara Hauiti-Parapara 2 con 1 pen). HT: 28-8

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