PIRATES PLUNDER
Uni takes out premiership over Cougars
UNIVERSITY notched all of their 24 points in the final 30 minutes to beat Casuarina 24-20 and win the NTRU premiership at Rugby Park last night.
Pirates grabbed the momentum when Wise Sekitoga crashed over the line to make the score 10-5 with half an hour to play.
Casuarina couldn’t wrestle the initiative back until it was too late. Sekitoga’s try, set up superbly by man-of-thematch Robbie Butcher, was followed by a quick double from Shaun Wauchope to take Hone Edwards’s side to a lead that proved too large for Cougars to reel in.
They did get within four points just before full-time thanks to a Bobby Nurse fivepointer.
Regaining possession from the subsequent kick off, Cougars were catapulted up the other end by a string of penalties after the bell.
However, an error at a lineout gave Pirates the ball and it was game over.
Edwards was a relieved man after a stressful 80 minutes on the sidelines.
“I was so nervous. Casuarina wanted to get it at the end and they kept putting pressure on that last couple of minutes, and we just had to hold our nerve,” he said.
“We made a few mistakes and those mistakes were costly, but we held our nerve and we kicked it out and that was the game. I was so happy with the boys.”
Edwards said Pirates were always confident they would overcome Cougars in the later stages.
“It’s about building pressure and playing to our systems … we broke them,” he said.
“That was the shift, we had some players that came on that were fresh an all of a sudden there was this break in the game and the momentum went our way.”
Cougars’ boss Joe Albert said credit had to go to Pirates, who proved too strong.
“I’m stoked with the commitment to get back in the end. I still told the boys to hold their heads up high, they gave everything they had,” he said.
“But you can’t take any- thing away from Uni, they played bloody well and gave us a good shake up. We didn’t capitalise on errors or prevent errors, so they deserve their victory.”
The only try of the first half came within the first five minutes to outside centre Joe Tuisuva, who strolled over some feeble Uni defence.
The remaining 35 minutes before the break was a battle for field position, without any substantial pressure being applied at either goal line.
Casuarina fly-half Zac Phillips took a snap at field goal with seven minutes to play, resulting in a 10-point margin at the break.