Brewer scores late as TK beat Kia Toa
A late try helped Te Kawau pull off their first big upset of the season knocking off Kia Toa 35-33.
Te Kawau held the advantage for much of the match, but Kia Toa stuck with them and eventually took the lead late in the game.
Then Harrison Brewer bagged what turned out to be the matchwinner for Te Kawau.
The Turbos flanker had just returned from Ireland on Thursday and had planned to play a small role off the bench. But he ended up playing 75 minutes after replacing Tom Parsons, who had a large cut on his head, five minutes into the match.
Kia Toa first five-eighth Joey Te Huna had a chance to steal the match in the dying minutes, but his penalty never came close to the posts.
Kia Toa were guilty of playing too much rugby out of their 22.
Te Kawau came into the game fired up and dealt out plenty of punishment on defence.
Flanker Taylor Lowe led the charge as he got through a pile of work and hooker Cam Barr also impressed.
Te Kawau went into the break with a deserved 24-14 lead.
The second half was a tight tussle as the Kia Toa backs found space to rack up the three further tries.
But Te Kawau’s backs also had starring performances.
Fullback Temm Kauri was well positioned all match, while Jordan Henare had one of hos best games of the season and Te Atuarere Albert also impressed in his first game of the season.
Young first five-eighth James Holland made a number of key tackles to reduce the impact of Kia Toa’s storming midfielder Vilikesa Raboiliku.
Wing Adam Boult made Jordan Bunce his latest victim of a footrace. The 18-year-old Te Kawau wing has now scored a try in each of the last five matches for Te Kawau.
Despite Kia Toa picking up the late lead, the Te Kawau pack kept the intensity up which helped set up Brewer’s try.
(Jordan Henare 2, Harrison Brewer, Adam Boult tries; Temm Kauri 3 con, 3 pen)
(Jordan Bunce 2, Nathan Tudreu, Moeaki Samita, Spencer Bishop tries; Joey Te Huna 4 con) HT: 24-14 Te Kawau. At Arena.
Te Kawau 35 Kia Toa 33
Linton Army came close to making it two upsets for the weekend, only to fall to Varsity 29-21.
The Sky Blues were once again under strength, but still looked to have the stronger side on paper.
The opening 10 minutes did nothing to suggest Linton would be able to keep pace with the defending champions.
While the soldiers looked good with ball in hand, they appeared to have no exit strategy from their 22 and their kicking game was poor.
The bright light for Linton was the scintillating start from halfback Tejay Oliver.
His ability to consistently pick holes in the defence helped Linton out of some tight spots.
On the other side of the field, Varsity flanker Rhodes Featherston was also having a storming match.
The timing and angles of his runs ensured he kept picking up metres despite his slender frame.
Caleb Mcdonald dotted down for the first try on the back of a Featherston break.
But Linton responded with a solo effort to fleet-footed wing Tamatoa Ropati.
From there Varsity pulled together their strongest period of the match with Scott Davidson doing a good job leading them around the park.
Tries to Sam Tufuga and Matt Hathaway put them up 19-7 after 30 minutes and a blow-out looked to be on the cards.
But that was followed by an injury to Featherston and then the try of the match to Linton as prop Nick Fakahau got an offload to Oliver inside the 22 and Oliver found a big hole. The halfback got the ball 35m out from the tryline where he put a well-placed kick for Hamiora Thomas, who was playing his first match of the season, to sprint on to and score.
With Angus White and Jimmy Bergham leading the way, Linton continued to pile on the pressure for the remainder of the half.
But the soldiers turned down a kickable penalty, meaning they trailed 19-12 at the break.
Varsity fullback Reece Brosnan scored for Varsity, but the soldiers got some good impact off the bench from the likes of Jaxon Tagavaitau.
Oliver scored to leave the score at 24-21 as momentum swung heavily in Linton’s favour.
But despite a big line break from Tagavaitau, Linton could not get the points they needed with Doug Juszczyk and Mickey Woolliams stepping up on defence.
After repelling the pressure, Brosnan got close for Linton before Willy Cribb put in a cross field kick for Nick Birchfield to score the match-sealer two minutes from fulltime.
(Sam Tufuga, Matt Hathaway, Caleb Mcdonald, Nick Birchfield, Reece Brosnan tries; Scott Davidson 2 con)
(Tamatoa Ropati, Hamiora Thomas, Tejay Oliver tries; Adam Erimiha 2 con, Jaxon Tagavaitau con) HT: 19-14 Varsity. At Massey.
A tidy College Old Boys blew Feilding Old Boys-oroua off the park with a 38-3 win.
The win came despite a heavy penalty count in Fob-oroua’s favour with Curtis Reid eventually paying the price for his team’s indiscretions as he was yellow carded late in the game.
That penalty count helped the Stags win the territory battle, but that did little to help their attacking chances.
COB impressed with their longrange attack, regularly coming after turnovers at the breakdown.
Fullback Andrew Mcdougall was one of their best on attack.
Eight minutes into the match Fob-oroua lost their starting halfback
Varsity 29 Army 21 Linton
Tom Stewart when his was hit hard in a tackle and left the field with a lot of blood coming from his head.
Poara Rakatau left the field with an injury just before halftime which meant they had to turn to their third option at halfback and without the duo, they looked rudderless on attack.
Fob-oroua coach Glen Gregory rolled most of his substitutes on after the break, but it did little to help their cause.
COB were dominant at set piece which helped them negate the affect of the penalty count.
(Kurt Mcnamara 2, Tyler Rogersholden, Brice Henderson, Tyla Mcneill, Tim Cadwallader tries; Curtis Reid 4 con)
(Tom Stewart pen). HT: 21 – 3 COB. At Arena.
Feilding halted their losing streak at five matches with a 42-19 win over Freyberg.
The match was tight early on as the teams traded blows.
Yellows scored the opening try, but Freyberg responded soon after.
Both teams went through phases where they controlled the tempo of the game.
Wiremu Morgan, in his second consecutive game for Freyberg after being promoted from their B team, kept his team in the game with some good kicks and solid option taking.
His four penalties kept Freyberg in the game as they trailed 20-16 at halftime.
Rain hit in the second half and both teams were guilty of making too many mistakes.
But Feilding did a better job of swooping on Freyberg’s errors.
A couple of quick tries around the 50-minute mark saw Yellows pull away.
Freyberg’s heads started to drop and they did not have the same intensity.
Without Morgan, they lacked direction and they failed to make the same impact with ball in hand.
After a lengthy period without a win, the Yellows backs started to turn on the heat late in the game as they racked up a big score.
Feilding’s best were hooker Ricky Cribb, halfback Crete Cribb, fullback Brad Carr and centre Matt Dalley.
College Old Boys 38 Boys-oroua 3 Feilding 42 Feilding Old
(Matt Dalley 2, Ben Wyness, Kit Bradley, Brad Carr, Ollie Carrodus tries; Wyness 3 cons, 2 pen) (Taleva Mokole try; Wiremu Morgan 4 pen, con). HT: 20-16 Feilding. At Johnston.
Freyberg 19