Vikings no match for Pirates
The Marist Saints and Bay Roskill Vikings will need to up their games this weekend as both teams remain languishing at the bottom end of rugby league’s Appliance Shed Fox Memorial ladder after round 14 of the competition.
The Marist Saints were left contemplating what might have been as the Howick Hornets crossed the line to finish the game 30-22 at Murray Halberg Park on Saturday.
Howick have slowly been climbing the ladder in recent weeks but old foes Marist found themselves on the scoreboard early when Peter Savelio went in untouched.
The Hornets didn’t waste any time in hitting back with Charlton Brown going in for his first and Kristian Tuimaseve putting them out in front.
The Hornets defence cracked again just before the break to send Marist into the sheds up 16-10.
A see-sawing second half had both teams finding the try line but the Howick defence seemed to hold out and with two minutes to go they found themselves up over the Saints 24-22.
The Saints were pushing up fast with great dummy-half running by their wingers. A mistake by Marist on the last tackle handed the ball back to Howick and from there the Hornets spread the ball wide to con- firm their win.
Across town in Walker Park, the Bay Roskill Vikings were on the wrong end of a 82-0 trouncing by the Pt Chevalier Pirates.
After grabbing their first win of the season last week the Vikings were looking to follow it up with another solid performance against a Pirates pack still confused at how they let slip a lead over Mt Albert the previous week. It seems that from the outset the Pirates had something to prove.
Throughout the first half they produced relentless pressure and found themselves back in the sheds after 40 minutes 38-0 up over a hapless Bay Roskill.
It didn’t get any better in the second half for Bay Roskill who conceded another 44 points to lose 82-0.
The Marist Saints face the Pt Chevalier Pirates and the Bay Roskill Vikings will meet the Otahuhu Leopards at Blockhouse Bay on Saturday.