Silverstream sail home to beat St Bede’s

A commanding second-half has earned St. Pats Silverstream a 33-7 win over Christchurch’s St. Bede's College in the annual traditional fixture at home today.

The first-half was largely forgettable as both teams left their hands in the dressing room. The first mistake was from the opening kick-off with Silverstream players guilty of being in front of the kicker, and the errors piled up over the next 30 minutes.

Gradually Silverstream seized the upper hand and centre Albert Polu was able to find some holes in the visitors defence. After 25 minutes the home team opened the scoring when Polu supported a break by fullback Harrison Boyle and second-five Kienan Higgins.

The St. Bede's lineout was a positive feature of their performance. Connor Sullivan is a fine jumper and regularly disrupted Silverstream's ball in the breezy conditions. Moments before halftime St. Bede's put together their most promising attack of the contest thus far, driving strongly towards the Silverstream goal line, but were held up and the referee called time.

The game threatened to turn in St. Bede's favour early in the second-half. Ahead 7-0, Silverstream turned down a kickable penalty, ten-metres out directly in front the posts.

Silverstream fumbled the ball from a scrum and St. Bede's cleared. Silverstream fumbled again and St. Bede's halfback Vincent Lucas dashed 25 metres to score a converted try. 

Silverstream kicked deep from the kick-off and St. Bede's responded with a shallow clearance. Boyle caught the ball in the St. Bede's half and busted two tackles before linking with wing Todd Svenson who passed inside to flanker Mitchell Bull-Elvines to put Silverstream back into the lead.

Silverstream started to take control and punched regular holes in the St. Bede's defence. Flanker Josh Southall, Svenson and Higgins added tries as Silverstream scored their biggest win in this match since 1999.

Southall and lock Iona Apineru are two good Year 11 prospects for Silverstream. Both worked feverishly on defence and the later did some serious damage with ball in hand later in the game.

The win for Silverstream reverses two consecutive narrow defeats to Scots College and Wellington College in the local WelTec competition. They now turn to face Wairarapa College in Masterton on Saturday. St Bede’s will hope to bounce back against winless Lincoln High School in the Crusaders UC Championship.

The next mid-week traditional in Wellington is next Wednesday when Silverstream host Rongotai College.

 Video highlights here