Victories for 19s, Development XV
The Manawatu Under-19s produced an impressive turnaround in form as they beat Hawke’s Bay 26-5 in Napier on Saturday.
Coming off a hefty loss to Bay of Plenty, the pressure was on to put on an improved performance in the first of their Hurricanes under19 seeding games.
Coach Shane Ratima said the loss to Bay of Plenty taught the team a lot about the way they needed to prepare for away matches after long bus rides.
Those lessons were evident on the field as they turned on a much more accurate effort against Hawke’s Bay.
Centre Ueta Tufuga, who was standing in as captain for Chris Cairns, who was concussed at training, had a top match.
As did No 8 Brayden Iose after being released by the Turbos for the match.
But it was an overall better team showing with the attack prospering for a strong set piece.
Manawatu scored their first try from a scrum move with Iose crossing the line.
They then picked up a penalty
try from their dominant scrum.
Te Anini Pardoe bagged their third from short range as he scooped up a botched lineout throw.
While Adam Boult set up the fourth to Iose, with the two speedsters combining nicely.
The Manawatu under-19s next face the Heartland Barbarians in Palmerston North on Saturday.
Meanwhile, the Manawatu Development XV were tested early before eventually overcoming Wairarapa Bush 33-17 in Masterton on Friday night.
Manawatu scored first, but they were trailing 10-7 at the break.
Some poor option taking and a passive attitude at the breakdown was proving costly against a fired up Wairarapa Bush side, which featured former All Black Piri Weepu at halfback.
But some halftime soul searching helped turn things around as they lifted their intensity.
They scored three tries within the first 10 minutes of the second half.
Defensively, they were better organised and put the squeeze on Wairarapa.
But with 12 minutes to go, second five-eighth Kameli Kuruyabaki was yellow carded - a victim of his team’s repeated infringing. Wairarapa bagged a try while Kuruyabaki was off the field, but they never came close to catching Manawatu.
A number of Turbos players took part in the match including Nathan Tudreu and Sam Malcolm.
was at the top of the box and slammed it into the top corner.
Teejay Lyne-lewis then put them into the lead five minutes later when she tapped in a cross from Molly Woodhead.
Centre back Woodhead had a great game in defence, especially after they lost influential defender Amber Phillips with a shoulder injury after 20 minutes.
Rose Morton had another quality performance at left back.
Some Marist players are likely to be in the Central team when the national league starts in October. In the other game, bottom sides
and drew 0-all in Lower Hutt. In the men’s Federation League,
may have done enough to avoid last place, with a 3-2 win over
at Massey. The win puts Massey ahead of Red Sox-manawatu on the table by one, point, so last place will be decided in the final round next weekend, when Massey play New Plymouth Rangers and Red Sox play Havelock North, both away.
Massey played one of their best first halves of the season, where Cole Freeman, Joe Freeman, who scored through a penalty, and Matt Hilson all scored for Massey to give them a 3-0 halftime lead.
Massey were controlled with their possession and robust on defence. But Wanganui lifted in the second spell and scored within 90 seconds to have alarm bells ringing in the Massey camp, but Massey hung on.
The Wanganui keeper was then sent off for his second yellow card
His first yellow card was when he gave away the first-half penalty for a reckless tackle and the second one was for throwing the ball away after the second penalty was awarded. The reserve keeper came on and saved the penalty.
Both teams had opportunities in the second half, hitting the post and having shots saved.
Ben Ravenwood had another cracker game in midfield and Hilson played well too. Two second-half goals set the up for a 2-0 win
at a wet
Stop Out Athletic Wairarapa United Massey University Wanganui Marist Reserves Red Sox-manawatu
over Ashhurst Domain.
Marist were strong defensively and didn’t allow Red Sox many chances. Marist created a few of their own, but couldn’t finish off a couple in the final third, and it was 0-all at halftime.
The game was in the balance, but then Ashish Sahayam scored in about the 55th minute to give Marist the lead, then Cameron Elms added a second about 20 minutes later.
Drew Gaskin was solid at centre back again, young goalkeeper Dom Semmens impressed again, centre forward Troye Aitken worked hard, right wing Mike Poff played well and left back Patrick Smither had a good game on his 20th birthday.
New Plymouth Rangers
had
the bye.
The Palmerston North Marist Central League men’s team have had their postponed game against Wairarapa United confirmed for Saturday at Memorial Park.