Bombay inching closer to top spot
Bombay stayed a point off the championship lead in Counties Manukau club rugby’s McNamara Cup on the weekend with a hard-fought 14-3 win over fellow top four side Karaka.
The result reverses the first round fixture, which saw Karaka triumph.
‘‘The conditions were pretty terrible. At one stage in the second half the wind and rain was just horizontal,’’ Bombay coach Jeff Marr said.
‘‘We had the lion’s share of possession and I thought our forward pack got up there and had a big day at the office.’’
Bombay takes on top-of-thetable Patumahoe this week in a tough run of games early in the second round.
Patumahoe stayed atop the standings with a narrow 14-12 win over Pukekohe at Colin Lawrie Fields.
The visitors jumped out to an early 14-0 lead and had a third try ruled out. From that moment on however Pukekohe dominated territory and possession and all but ran them down.
‘‘It was tough – we knew it would take the whole 80 minutes to win here at Pukekohe,’’ a relieved Patumahoe coach Jeff Maka said.
Ardmore-Marist moved to third on the ladder with a 32-20 win over Waiuku.
‘‘It was a totally different Waiuku side than what we faced in round one,’’ Ardmore-Marist coach Saua Leaupepetele said.
Onewhero closed the gap to the top four and kept hold of the famous gumboot as they got the spoils against Te Kauwhata 29-10.
Onewhero raced out to an early lead and secured a four-try bonus point before halftime. With a 24-0 lead at the break it threatened to get ugly but Te Kauwhata played strongly in the second half with the wind.
‘‘It was a typical Te KauwhataOnewhero gumboot game kind of match,’’ coach Adam Catchcart.
‘‘It was a bit messy at the start and took everyone about 10 minutes to get into the game.’’
Manurewa racked up the biggest score of the round in thrashing Papakura 67-15 to keep alive their semifinal aspirations.
‘‘We got off to a good start,’’ assistant coach Jeremy Clark said.
‘‘The tight five did well in the contact areas early and the backs just finished off some good work from the forwards.’’
In Premier 2 action Waiuku, Karaka and Pukekohe all made up for their Premier 1 sides going down to the same opposition by recording victories while Manurewa and Onewhero also collected wins.
Weymouth and Maramarua had wins in Premier 3.
Pukekohe Under 21s claimed a win in the Counties Power game of the week with a superb 19-15 win over the previously unbeaten Patumahoe.
Montell Whareaitu of Pukekohe was named player of the day.
Karaka, Ardmore-Marist and Bombay also had wins.