Feilding in final as journey continues

The Feilding High School first XV had another win on their wretched away run.

Feilding beat Wanganui Collegiate School 32-15 at Wanganui yesterday to advance to the final of the Hurricanes co-ed region knockout tournament.

It was their fourth game in 12 days, all of them away, and they have another on Saturday - the final of the Central North Island competition against Wesley College at Pukekohe.

Feilding have recently played Francis Douglas Memorial College,

"I was reasonably worried when they scored under the sticks ... but I had faith in the boys." Mark Mcalley, Feilding coach

Manukura, St Paul’s Collegiate and now Collegiate.

Feilding have been resilient throughout it, though and were straight in the pool on Wednesday afternoon to recover ahead of their trip to Wesley.

The win over Collegiate wasn’t easy, as it was 8-all at halftime and Collegiate took the lead 15-8 early in the second half, but as Feilding started to build phases and pressure they got on top.

‘‘It was anyone’s game at halftime,’’ coach Mark Mcalley said.

‘‘From a coach’s point of view I was reasonably worried when they scored under the sticks to go up 15-8. But I had faith in the boys.’’

Feilding were struggling at the breakdown, but once they got over that and kept the ball in hand they came back into the game.

With more possession, Feilding started to find holes in the Collegiate defence, particularly through centre Josiah Maraku.

Maraku was reasonably contained at the start of the game, but he managed to cut through them and score a second-half hat-trick.

Halfback Griffin Culver came off the bench at halftime and made a big impact.

The Hurricanes co-ed final is at the Arena next Saturday, where Feilding will play the winner of the Wellington competition, and the winner will go to the national top four competition, which Feilding won last year.