Hardham Cup Kicks Off

Round 1 Review The first round of the Hardham Cup kicked off this weekend with convincing wins to Hutt Old Boys Marist, Old Boys University and Oriental Rongtai. Ories demolished Northern United 53-6 thrusting them to first equal on the points table with 5 points. OBU also shares a spot at the top of the table beating MSP 25-7 getting off to a good start in round one. HOBM are the third team to be tied for first place with a strong win over Johnsonville 41-7.

Petone are nipping at their heels narrowly beating Poneke 19-13. Poneke coming within seven gained a bonus point lifting them just off the bottom of the table. MSP, Johnsonville and Norths all round out the bottom of the table having yet to register a point.

The feature match this weekend was between Hutt Old Boys Marist and Johnsonville proving to be a heavily one sided encounter. HOBM drew first blood setting the pace for the remainder of the match. Johnsonville only managed to cross the line once during the game through first five Corey Burt who was playing his 100th game. The try came against the run of play with Burt snatching a well anticipated intercept and running 50 metres to score.

The slippery conditions made it hard for both sides with unforced errors stopping play frequently. The HOBM forward pack showed awesome strength forcing countless tight heads. This allowed the backline to have the luxury of fast clean ball which they utilized with the team scoring six tries in total. At half time there was a twelve point difference between the sides with HOBM continuing their attack in the second half. Johnsonville?s defence held at times but was inconsistent seeing HOBM dominate for the majority of the game. A yellow card toward the end of the match didn?t help Johnsonville?s chances, the extra man was sorely missed, resulting in HOBM crossing their line again.

One try that proved to be a crowd favourite was a front row affair, with a well executed dummy from prop Sam Matenga who then passed to fellow propping partner Cory Wallace who barged his way over. Wallace showed his skills throughout the game making huge tackles and breaking the line of defence on numerous occasions.

A lack of possession shut Johnsonville out of the game early on, leaving them always on the back foot. Johnsonville gave away too many penalties, which HOBM used to their advantage by controlling territory throughout the game.

Accurate kicking from the fullback Mike Kingsbeer kept Johnsonville out of reach with a couple of conversions made from the sideline. Overall HOBM played as a team for the entire eighty minutes outplaying their opponents who looked disjointed at times.