College OB win big; Varsity maintain lead
College Old Boys eased their way to a 43-12 win over Feilding in Manawatu club rugby on Saturday.
Yellows fragile defence, particularly out wide, was exposed early and often by a COB side that made its fair share of errors. Tackling practice must be top of the list in training this week Feilding coach Kelvin Tantrum after the slack efforts of many in team.
COB did a good job retaining the ball and seemed to win it back quickly after their mistakes.
Starved of the ball, you could have been forgiven for thinking Feilding backs like Brad Carr and Matt Dalley weren’t even playing, that was until the former grabbed a late consolation try in one of their few slick attack movements 73 minutes into the game.
Frontrowers would have delighted to watch Feilding prop Sean Rankin sprint 50m for a try just before fulltime. Playing just his second game since returning from Holland, Rankin intercepted the a Tyla Mcneill pass and showed a clean set of heels as he raced in for the try.
That was one of the few moments he could smile in the game after getting demolished in the scrums. Considering Yellows featured the representativemotivated Timo Bristow and Rankin, they could not handle the COB frontrow of Adam Coll, Cory Purton and Tim Cadwallader.
At one stage the COB scrum shunted the Yellows pack 8m backwards before Feilding collapsed just in front of the goal line. Bryce Grant cashed in with the try in the corner as a direct result.
It was that forward effort, combined with one of Tyler Rogers-holden’s best games of the season, which set up the win.
Rogers-holden, now back on the wing after filling in at halfback through Karl Bryson’s suspension, was almost untackleable.
He led the game in tacklers beaten with a count that soared into the 20s. Rogers-holden cashed in with the first try of the match thanks to a break from fullback Andrew Mcdougell.
COB ended up with a 15-0 lead at the break, but they could have been up by much more had they not turned down five kickable penalties.
While COB had the better of the running in the first half, they were absolutely dominant for the opening period of the second half.
Tries to Mcdougell, Henderson and Rogers-holden gave them a healthy lead.
Yellows did fight back late, lead by the efforts of lock Sammy Pesamino, wing Geoff Gibson and replacement halfback Jalen Rahui.
(Tyler Rogers 2, Brice Henderson, Andrew Mcdougall, Bryce Grant, Nick Blundell tries; K Bryson 5 cons, 1 pen) (Brad Carr, Sean Rankin tries; Ben Wyness con) HT: 15-0 COB. At Arena.
Varsity defended their spot on the top of the table with a 21-11 win over Kia Toa.
The Sky Blues struggled to get accustomed to the wet field which opened the door for Kia Toa, who came out of the gates strong. They stormed to an 8-0 lead on the back of a try to Nathan Tudreu, set up by Jackson Iose, and a penalty to Jade Te Rure.
But as the match wore on, the Varsity tight five started getting more dominant, Tom Hughes, Nick Grogan and Sam Tufuga all impressing as well.
The return from New Zealand Sevens duty of halfback of Jamie Booth was also important for Varsity with his decision making helping them get on the front-foot.
And it was Booth who grabbed the first try for Varsity in the 25th minute after fullback Te Rangatira Waitokia split the defence open and put the halfback into space.
Davidson missed the easy conversion, but made up for it by
College Old Boys 43 Feilding 12
nailing a wide conversion from Nick Birchfield’s try to give Varsity a 12-8 halftime lead.
It was a confrontational match and it appeared Kia Toa lock Fraser Stone got away with punching Varsity’s Jarrod Harawira in one of the dust-ups.
Four minutes into the second half Jordan Bunce looked to be on his way for a try, but he was deemed to be offside and it ended up being three more points to Varsity.
Kia Toa lost first five-eighth Te Rure with an arm injury and that was the end of Kia Toa’s hopes. They lacked the organisation and started playing as individuals.
(Jamie Booth, Nick Birchfield tries; Scott Davidson con, 3 pen) (Nathan Tudreu try; Jade Te Rure 2 pen) HT: 12-8 Varsity. At Arena.
Te Kawau rediscovered some
Varsity 21 Kia Toa 11
form as they ran all over Freyberg to win 55-5. It was a scoreline that could have been much bigger had Te Kawau not rolled on their subs early in the second half.
The only scoring in the second half came around the final 10 minutes with Te Kawau cashing in with three further tries and Freyberg getting one.
Freyberg lacked the intensity at the start of the game.
After letting in an early try, they were guilty of once again dropping their heads.
That was something they could ill afford to do with Te Kawau spurred on with getting some redemption after a poor showing the previous week.
Te Kawau found space where ever they looked with Freyberg falling off tackles all over the place. Up 36-0 at halftime, the game was already won.
They were getting quick ball and exposed Freyberg around the fringes. Liam Mitchell played his first game of the season, ending up playing the full match – aside from the 10 minutes he spent in the sin bin.
After only landing in the country on Thursday, the promising lock, believed to be on the Turbos’ radar, was expected to have a 20 minute trot late in the game.
But a shortage of locking options meant he started the match. Just before halftime he was incorrectly yellow carded for his team’s repeat infringing.
The referee penalised a Te Kawau forward for coming in the side of the ruck and picked the wrong player when he singled out Mitchell, who was on the ground as the tackler for the indiscretion.
That changed Te Kawau’s
planned halftime substitution with Mitchell’s extra rest allowing him to play the full match.
First five-eighth Ethan Woodmass came on for the final 20 minutes in his first match also since returning from Spain.
Te Kawau’s best performer was hooker Cam Barr, who rediscovered his lineout throwing form and picked up three tries to boot.
Freyberg’s experienced locking core of Karl Stewart and Andrew Wood were strong all match, getting through plenty of work, while James Cornelius was solid filling in at hooker for the suspended Michael Lockwood.
No 8 Josh Leung-wai was the star performer for Freyberg once again, while Iosefa Mataora was the best of the backs.
(Cam Barr 3, Taylor Lowe 2, Te Atuarere Albert 2, Patrick Hiscox tries; Temm Kauri 6 con, pen) (Andrew Wood try) HT: 36-0 Te Kawau. At Colquhoun.
Old Boys-marist survived a late Feilding Old Boys-oroua revival to escape Kimbolton with a 33-21 win.
The Stags recovered well after trailing 26-0 mid-way through the second half, but catching OBM was a bridge too far.
Te Kawau 55 Freyberg 5
The match had start even with the Fob-oroua forwards doing a better job competing than they had in the previous encounter.
OBM held a 7-0 advantage at the break, but there was always feeling that they were destined to push on. Fob-oroua fell asleep in the second half.
They made some silly defensive errors and were guilty of too many mistakes with ball in hand.
OBM took advantage as their forward pack grew more into the game. Fullback Luther Hirini was in dangerous form, dotting down for two tries against his former team.
But just when the blowout looked on the cards, the Stags came to life. They started to find some continuity with ball in hand and had success spreading the ball wide.
But their three tries were too little, too late with OBM holding on for the win.
(Luther Hirini 2, Chris Long, Ben Werthmuller, Jason Temara tries; Temara 3 con, Bain Champion con) (Ollie Brosnahan, Jeremiah Tuimanua-fryer, Alex Hawira tries; Tom Stewart 3 con) HT: 7-0 OBM. At Kimbolton.
Old Boys-marist 33 Feilding Old Boys-oroua 21