Tawa book top spot for Jubilee Cup semis; Wests Roosters seal fourth in Hardham Cup

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Above: Avalon fullback Peni Bulamaibau breaks the tackle of his opposite number James Waddell to race away to score the second of his two tries today. Avalon won this Hardham Cup 24-14.

UPDATED SUNDAY MORNING: Recently crowned Swindale Shield champions Tawa added the Andy Leslie Trophy to their cabinet today for winning the Jubilee Cup round-robin series. All that’s missing is the big one, the Jubilee Cup itself, which moves into championship mode next weekend after another hotly contested set of last round matches.

Tawa will return home to Lyndhurst Park next week to play their semi-final against Old Boys-University, who were leapfrogged into third place by Oriental-Rongotai after losing to Ories 26-10 at Nairnville Park.

Despite missing out to Tawa 9-23 and losing their second match in a row, the Hutt Old Boys Marist Eagles retained second place and they will host Ories at the Hutt Recreation Ground in the other semi-final.

In the Hardham Cup, Northern United qualified on top after earning a 28-7 bonus point win over Johnsonville at Helston Park, and they will host fourth placed the Wests Roosters who demolished the Rimutaka Rams 70-17 at Maoribank Park.

Upper Hutt held on to qualify second, despite losing 19-21 in a thriller to the Wellington Axemen in their last round match at the ‘Graveyard’ at Hataitai Park. Upper Hutt will do battle with the Axemen all over again next weekend in their playoff encounter at Maidstone Park.

In other Jubilee Cup results today, that didn’t ultimately affect the playoff positions, Marist St Pat’s easily accounted for Petone 43-10 and Wainuiomata finished with a flourish beating Poneke 33-23.

In the other Hardham Cup match, Avalon defeated OBU B 24-14 at Ian Galloway Park.

The Victoria Tavern Women’s semi-finals presented wins to top qualifier Northern United and second placed Ories. Norths beat Old Boys-University 63-5 and Ories defeated defending second round champions Wanuiomata 25-7. The final is this coming Friday night at Porirua Park at 7.00 pm.

Four of the five Senior 1 Ed Chaney results were close. Marist St Pat’s climbed out of the relegation zone with a 21-19 win over Upper Hutt, while Paremata-Plimmerton remain at the top of the table after defeating Petone 17-13. Wainuiomata moved up to third after defeating Ories 26-20 and Norths defeated HOBM 16-6.

Second placed Tawa were the only comfortable winners on the day beating Poneke 34-0.

With two rounds to play before the Senior 1 semi-finals, the race for the semi-finals remains close with Ories, Petone and HOBM all locked together in fourth equal on 18 points.

MSP made it three wins from three for its top teams, defeating Petone 24-10 in its Senior 2 HD Morgan Memorial Cup clash fixture. MSP remain tied to the bottom of the Senior 2 table, however, behind leaders the Wests Roosters who accounted for Poneke 53-5.

OBU are second after beating Avalon 17-12 and Stokes Valley third after defeating Norths 20-10, while strugglers Johnsonville upset midtable Wainuiomata 23-3.

With three rounds still to play before the Senior 2 playoffs, this grade is really heating up.

Wests have a five-point lead to second placed OBU but then there’s six teams separated by six points all chasing at least two spots for the semi-finals.

The semi-finalists have been found in the Colts Division 1 grade, with OBU Green continuing to set the pace in this grade and registering their seventh straight win of the second round beating Petone Blue 36-12.OBU Green will play Wellington in one semi-final, after the junior Axemen beat Poneke 38-15 and HOBM Green will play Norths in the other after HOBM accounted for Johnsonville 35-5 and Norths beat Ories by default this weekend.

In some Jubilee Cup highlights, Wainuiomata lock Glen Angus scored the fastest try of the season, and in fact many seasons probably, when he soared high to claim the opening kick-off of the game and sprinted 40 metres to score untouched.

Angus’s try lifted Wainuiomata, who scored three more tries before halftime to lead 28-3 at the turnaround. More importantly, they had their bonus point to mathematically give themselves a show of making the playoffs.

Poneke closed the gap in the second half, but Wainuiomata flanker Henry Stowers crossed towards the end to see the green and blacks end their season on a high.

Tawa held on to beat HOBM after having two players sent to the sin-bin for the second consecutive week. Tawa, who had Highlanders and Wellington midfielder Shaun Treeby in their side, out-scored HOBM two tries to nil and led 13-3 at the halftime interval. An already injury hit HOBM also lost wing Site Timu to injury, which held up play for 10 minutes in the second half.

MSP needed a bonus point win in their last match and for Ories to lose to OBU. The defending champions earned their bonus point with a dominant second half over Petone. They led 10-3 at the break and then scored five further tries after the interval to win comfortably. Halfback Peter Sciascia bagged a brace in another Player of the Match performance.

Ories’ three tries to one win over OBU consigned MSP to the beach no matter what happened in their match against Petone.

After a closely contested first half in which both sides scored a try apiece, Ories pulled clear in the second spell on the back of OBU ill-discipline more than anything else.

OBU had their chances, leaving eight points on the field in missed kicks at halftime and then missing a third penalty opportunity and then a try chance immediately after the break when halfback Luke Campbell knocked on under the bar.

They were then penalised out of the game at ruck tme and lost replacement rake Stu Simmonson to the sin bin. Ories first five-eighth Fa’atonu Fili kicked two successive penalties to extend the lead to 16-5, ahead of two tries, to right wing Andrew Ellis and left wing Julian Savea.

Savea, who plays for the All Blacks, raced over in the left hand corner to put the game out of reach of OBU with about 15 minutes to play.

In the Hardham Cup curtain-raiser, at Ian Galloway Park, Avalon captalised on an errant OBU B side to register a three tries to two victory.

Avalon scored two tries in the first half - both to flying fullback Peni Bulamaibau - and took a 17-7 lead into halftime.

OBU tried to mount a comeback after halftme, but they made far too many mistakes in the slippery, drizzly conditions at the Cage and Avalon effectively delivered the knock-out punch with about 20 minutes to play when they ran the ball from a turnover in midfield and blindside flanker Daniel Smith scored under the posts making it 24-7.

OBU kept attacking to the end and replacement flanker Ben Hamelink scored in the corner and halfback Ben Oakley converted to close the margin up.

The match between hosts Wellington and Upper Hutt at Hataitai Park was a Hardham Cup thriller.

The Axemen won the match with the last play of the game, first five-eighth Hilton Mexted stepping up in the best tradition of Evan Hopkin and kicking the winning penalty to give them a 21-19 victory.Earlier, Upper Hutt had scored the only try of the first half and they led 7-3 at the turnaround.

Flanker Josh Hunt scored again for Upper Hutt soon after the break and they extended their lead. The Axemen came back though, No. 8 Vaea Fifita scoring two tries, and they went ahead 18-14 midway through the second spell.

Upper Hutt scored their third try and took a 19-18 lead, before Mexted’s final kick of the game gave Wellington the win. These two sides will now do it all again next week at Maidstone Park.

Northern United grabbed top spot for the semi-finals with a bonus point 28-3 win over Johnsonville. In a hard fought match, right wing Perry Hayman scored two tries and No. 8 Parekura Lalaga and fullback Johnny Teleaga crossed for the others.

The Wests Roosters made sure of fourth place with a 70-17 victory over Rimutaka, who ended their tenure as a Premier club with a 0 and 18 record and having conceded 1,172 points and scored 124.

For Wests, No. 8 Pita Semeane scored a hat-trick, while first five-eighth Faialaga Afamasaga scored 28 points. For Rimutaka, blindside flanker Manie Lilo scored all three of their tries.

To read Jubilee Cup match-by-match reports from Round 7 click here