Melville wins club rugby title
Melville’s head coach Craig Walters hailed his players’ desire as they captured the Waikato premier club rugby title for the first time in 35 years.
The club won a nail-biting, lowscoring final played in wet and windy conditions at Waikato Stadium in Hamilton on Saturday when they saw off Hamilton Old Boys 11-6.
In a repeat of last weekend’s nerve-jangling 13-12 semifinal win over University, Melville had to defend their own line with their season at stake as Old Boys had a lineout five metres out after the hooter had sounded.
This time, they had to defend with only 14 men after hooker Seto Setefano was sin-binned in the final 10 minutes.
Old Boys’ 11-year wait for another title extends for another year, after they’d finished third in the regular season then made the final with a 30-20 semifinal victory over Hautapu last weekend.
It could have been oh so different for Old Boys, with their fans raising the roof when Waikato winger Iliesa Ratuva Tavuyara touched down in the corner on the hour at 11-6 - only to discover his foot was adjudged to have scraped the whitewash on his way to the try-line.
The decider started slowly and Sam Toa’s laboured first penalty attempt at goal that was dragged wide was the closest either side came to breaking the deadlock in a cagey, nervous opening.
First-five Jonnie Te Ruki kicked Melville 3-0 in front with a superb strike from just over 40 metres out. The players were cautious with their handling, with supporters cheering every half break, big tackle and surging run, but ball retention was loose in a tense first half that saw more errors than try-line action.
Old Boys winger Jonty Rae levelled it up with a penalty after 26 minutes, only for Toa to add another three for Melville just six minutes later.
Melville spurned an easy three points, instead choosing to test Old Boys’ scrum close to the line. But Old Boys held firm.
Melville applied the early pressure at the start of the second spell and space opened up out right for them to score the game’s only try. The final decisive pass was flicked into the arms of Toa, who dived over to put Melville 11-3 ahead.
Rae’s penalty moments later cut Melville’s lead to five and Old Boys threw everything at them in the dying minutes. Basketball success Waikato’s basketballers have had a strong showing at the national under-15 and under-19 championships, finishing in the top four at every event. The women came second at both their championships. The under15s, playing in Wellington, swept their way through pool play, beating Tasman, Palmerston North, North Harbour B and Otago, then Waitakere West and Taranaki in the quarterfinals and semifinals, setting up a showdown with North Harbour A, which they lost by only three, 76-73. The under-19s, playing in Nelson, also had it easy in pool play, beating Canterbury and Taranaki, then Canterbury again to make it to the final, also against North Harbour, but that was where their winning run ended. Both men’s teams finished fourth, the under-15s losing to eventual champions Wellington in the semifinals, then going down to Palmerston North in a playoff. Women’s football The Hamilton Wanderers women will have local bragging rights over the summer, after coming from behind three times to beat Claudelands Rovers in the second derby of the Northern Premier Women’s League season. The first meeting between the two sides, at Galloway Park in May, ended in a 2-2 draw, and a similar result was in the offing for long periods on Sunday at Porritt Stadium, as they each pegged each other back every time one of them got their noses in the front. In the end, it was Leanna Ryan who grabbed Wanderers the final go-ahead goal, with what was almost the last kick of the game.