Te Kawau, Obmfight out stalemate
With the Old Boys-marist connections with Te Kawau, it should have been no surprise the two sides battled to a standstill at Rongotea, and a 17-all draw.
Te Kawau coach and former Obmcaptain Chris Long enlisted 19-year Real Blokes veteran Mark Grayson for the pre-game pep talk on Saturday.
It worked for Te Kawau and formerobmno 8 Benedict Grant threw himself everywhere as did his former team-mate Roydon Miller.
Obmhad Turbo Ben Werthmuller back at fullback and Crusaders prop Harrison Allen had his 20-minute cameo and shunted the opening scrum.
Otherwise there was nothing between them in a game of kickingmisfires and ruck penalties, aside fromobm gobblingmore ball in the second half.
They just couldn’t breach the Te Kawau pickets other than Lee Thompson slotting two penalties to tie the game.
Obmbutchered an early try with the line open, but in the 33rdminute wing Max Harris broke cleverly to put wing Will Treder over.
Te Kawau scored two tries, one afterwaves of crossfield attacks off a lineout.
A Kameli Kuruyabaki intercept try took them to 17-11 against the grain, but OBM’S toilers Jay Rolleston, Ben Crozier, Matene Ruawai and prop Anthony Guerin, dug in.
Te Kawauwill get Turbo Adam Boult back from injury next week. Their best were flankers Te Atuarere Albert and Jasonmyers and Hurricanes lock Liam Mitchell.
With a powerful scrum, Kia Toa picked up their first win of the season against an undermanned Freyberg, 35-14 at Colquhoun Park.
Freyberg had players away with the Hurricanes under-20s and at the national touch championships.
The first half was a close contest, with Kia Toa looking threatening, but scrambling Freyberg defence held them out.
Hurricanes loose forward Brayden Iose was sharp with the ball in hand, scoring a try from the back of the scrum in the first half, giving them an 8-0 halftime lead and he laid on another one straight after the break for halfback Leighton Ralph.
Freyberg’s scrum was going backwards and neither side’s lineout was at their best, so Freyberg didn’t have much ball to play with in the second half.
The Freyberg forwards didn’t take a backwards step though, with hard-running prop Apelua Tautele and flanker Michael Halatuituia getting stuck in.
Kias pulled away at the end, with first five-eighth Te Atawhai Mason scoring an 80-metre intercept try and replacement wing Harry Evans finished off a nice counterattack for another try on fulltime.
Fullback Jeremiah Fryer was dangerous at the back and powerful wing Rudi Sifa was hard to stop with a head of steam up.
Feilding’s monster forward pack is proving tough to stop and they accounted for College Old Boys 58-34 at Johnston Park.
College shot out of the blocks, scoring a try from a charge down and a quick tap to be up 17-5.
But Feilding stuck to their structured game, kicking for the corners, using their rolling maul and their big ball carriers – Tietie Tuimauga, Sean Rankin, Sam Wasley and Hayden Stratford – were too much for COB.
Feilding led 24-17 at halftime, then started carving up in the second half, with fullback Drew Wild cutting loose and scoring a hat-trick.
Feildingwere awarded a penalty try for a scrum infringement.
The gamewent to uncontested scrums in the second half when College had injuries in the front row.
College dangermen first fiveeighth Stewart Cruden and second five-eighth James Tofa weremade to make a lot of tackles.
Feilding second five-eighth Frank Prodger had a huge game and did well marking Tofa and Wasley’s strong carriers got them on the front foot.
COB fullback Dane Whale was solid at the back, hooker Corey Wahoworked hard and flanker Jared Goodson kept tackling and winning lineouts.
College loosie Johnny Galloway was given a red card late in the game for allegedly elbowing a player.
Varsity’s defence held strong as they beat Feilding Old Boysroua 23-14 at Kimbolton.
The teams traded tries in the first half, but three penalties from Varsity first five-eighth Scott Davidson gave them a 16-7 lead at halftime.
Davidson’s kicking kept the students at the right end of the park
Fob-o¯roua had long spells of possession, but couldn’t break through in the second spell, and Varsity sealed it with another try.
With 15 minutes left, the Stags were on attack and turned down penalties which would have got them within striking distance.
They instead opted for scrums or to kick for the corner, but Varsity, who had a strong scrum, repelled them.
No 8Micaiah Torrance-read and flanker Dylan Hall were standout forwards for Varsity and wing Korie Winters, in his first game back from Edinburgh, made some good runs.
Fob-o¯roua’s first five-eighth Layton Manuel was a handful on attack, halfback Logan Henry played well, second five-eighth Jamie Perigo was amenace and prop Lucas Puts powered through 80 minutes.
In the first round of the women’s competition, defending champions Kia Toa thrashed
Whanganui Metro 83-0 in Whanganui.
Feilding Old Boys-o¯roua won a closematch against
Varsity 22-15.
Bush had the bye. Meanwhile, the Feilding High School first XV lost 35-32 to New Plymouth Boys’ High School in Waverley and the Palmerston North Boys’high School first XV lost 38-21 to St Paul’s Collegiate School in Hamilton.