Feilding shine brightly on Carr’s big day
Buoyed by Brad Carr playing his 300th match for Yellows, Feilding squeezed the life out Te Kawau with a tidy second half to win 29-17 on Saturday.
The 35-year-old fullback ran out to a guard of honour from his team-mates and they seemed pumped up for the match from the start.
But Te Kawau had plenty to play for as well.
Standing on the sidelines was most of their 1997 Hankins Shield winning team.
Both teams looked evenly matched and it was only fitting that it took a line break from Carr to register the first points of the game.
With just his second touch of the match, Carr used his trademark step to get through the line and offload to captain Matt Dalley for the try.
When Ollie Carrodus crossed shortly after, Yellows looked to have the game under control. But Te Kawau fought back. No 8 Harrison Brewer and centre Jordan Henare broke tackles with almost every touch of the ball.
That was not lost on their teammates who ensured plenty of ball went their way.
Brewer set up Te Kawau’s first try to lock Hayden Macdonald, while it was an Henare break that eventually ended with their second try to wing Shaun Lawton-sue.
Yellows’ 14-12 advantage was a fair reflection at the break.
Whatever Feilding coach Kelvin Tantrum said to his team at the break clearly hit the right note with the players coming out firing.
Prop Timo Bristow and halfback Jalen Rahui both had a number of carriers that put them right back on attack.
Second-half tries to Carrodus and hooker Zac Third meant the scoreboard kept ticking over.
Yellows’ biggest advantage came at the breakdown where they put a lot of pressure on Te Kawau’s ball.
They managed top slow down the breakdowns and won a pile of penalties for their efforts.
Te Kawau lacked the same level of enthusiasm in the second half, but did show some signs of life when Brewer put Patrick Hiscox away for a late try.
The loss put a significant dent in Te Kawau’s top four hopes.
Feilding now have three wins on the trot and will no doubt be pumped up for their derby match against Fob-oroua next weekend where Carr’s milestone will be celebrated.
(Ollie Carroodus 2, Matt Dalley, Zac Third tries, Ben Wyness 3 con, 1 pen) (Te Atuarere Albert, Hayden Mcdonald, Shaun Lawton-sue tries, 1 con) HT: 14-12 Feilding. At Rongotea.
Feilding 29 Te Kawau 17
College Old Boys have well and truly put their rusty start to the season behind them with a 31-10 win over Kia Toa to open the second round.
It was a role reversal of their first round fixture where COB were messy and lacked attacking rhythm.
This time the COB machine was ticking over well with good impact from the forwards.
But it was Curtis Reid who proved chief destroyer.
His combination with Patrick Tafili-reid constantly got COB over the advantage line.
They were helped by a dominant COB scrum. Tim Cadwallader and Adam Coll had Kia Toa going backwards all match. With good ball, COB’S backs were efficient with their use of it in the first half.
Up 24-3 at the break, the match appeared all over.
And there was very little to suggest Kia Toa would come back in the second half.
Kia Toa continued with their strategy of holding onto the ball rather than kicking it away. But their attack was too lateral and it was easily defended by COB.
COB’S finishing was sloppy in the second half, but they were always in control of the match.
Only a late try to Jade Te Rure near fulltime ensured Kia Toa managed to breach COB’S line at least once in the game.
Te Rure came into his own in the final 10 minutes.
His dangerous running and vision meant that he put a lot of his
team-mates into space.
Kia Toa’s others to impress were Moeaki Samita and Jackson Iose.
Others to impress for COB were Brice Henderson, Tyler Rogersholden and Manaaki Selby-rickit.
(Curtis Reid 2, Tim Cadwallader, Manaaki Selby-rickit tries; Reid 4 con, pen)
(Jade Te Rure try; Te Rure con, pen) HT: 24-3 COB. At Arena.
Fob-oroua came close to bagging their second upset win over Varsity this season, but the Sky Blues escaped with a 25-21 win.
For the second consecutive match the Stags had their opponent on the ropes, but failed to land the knockout blow.
Fob-oroua were left to rue a pile of kickable penalties they turned down early in the match, with their shaky lineout giving them little reward.
Much like their loss to Kia Toa, Fob-oroua let their opponents skip out to an early lead only to haul them back in.
After being up 10-0, Varsity first watched their lead turn into a deficit with Fob-oroua’s backs finding plenty of space.
College Old Boys 31 Kia Toa 10
Jamie Perigo, Ollie Brosnahan and Jeremiah Tuimanua-fryer were the standouts.
Down 10-7 at halftime, Foboroua scored through Lewis Marshall early in the second half.
Another try gave them a 21-13 lead and the upset looked to be on the cards.
But Varsity never panicked, despite the hefty penalty count against them.
Reece Brosnan, Caleb Mcdonald, Matt Hathaway and Kirk Tufuga were the stars as they chipped away at the Stags’ defence.
After Hathaway came within inches of the line after a break, Varsity won a tighthead on the ensuing scrum with Tufuga getting the points from the push-over try.
With 10 minutes to play, Nathan Tweedy charged down a kick to score what ended up being the matchwinner against the team he played for last season.
(Nathan Tweedy, Kirk Tufuga, Reece Brosnan, Nick Birchfield tries; Scott Davidson con, pen)
Varsity 25 21 Feilding Old Boysoroua
(Jeremiah Tuimanuafryer, Lewis Marshall, Max Fryatt tries; Matt Iwikau 2 con, Zeon Mcnabb con) HT: 10-7 Varsity. At Johnston.
Old Boys-marist turned on a second-half slaughter against an under-strength Linton side to win 50-7.
The soldiers were missing a number of their stars, including halfback Tejay Oliver, centre Jaxon Tagavaitau and loose forward Jimmy Bergham, and were always facing an uphill battle against an OBM side with plenty to prove.
Defensively they were outclassed by OBM’S slick attack.
Linton also hit trouble at lineout time which effectively rendered any penalty they picked up ineffective.
OBM found plenty of space in the inside channel between Linton’s first- and second-five which meant they got plenty of goforward.
No 8 Rhys Pedersen turned on a man of the match display with a hefty workrate, while Matt Maoate made same big ground up the middle of the park.
The positive for Linton was the performances of young first fiveeighths Harrison Brown and Kaden Morrison.