Waimea concede crucial early tries

Waimea Combined Schools conceded crucial tries in the opening seconds and again at the death to suffer a disappointing 29-17 loss to Timaru Boys High School in their UC Championship schools rugby clash on Saturday.

Timaru’s big fullback Ofa Manuofetoa stunned Waimea when he powered through to the line inside the opening minute in Hanmer Springs. It helped provide Timaru with an important early buffer that they managed to maintain throughout an otherwise tight and entertaining contest .

Waimea were under constant pressure from a bigger Timaru forward pack and also struggled to provide clean lineout ball to their potent backline. Still, it made little difference to Waimea’s attacking intent as their backs applied plenty of pressure on a scrambling Timaru defence.

Timaru led 15-10 at halftime, with elusive fullback Matthew Stevenson scoring the first of his two tries and Josh McPherson adding the conversion and penalty.

Blindside flanker Kaleb HuntWheeler and lock Hunter Webb scored further tries for Timaru. With Stevenson scoring his second try to again reduce the margin to just five points late in the match, a second try to Hunt-Wheeler from an in-pass after a lengthy break denied Waimea a losing bonus point.

Despite Stevenson’s try-scoring efforts, right wing Callum Whitten was the pick of Waimea’s backs with a superb effort, eventually moving into second five-eighth for an injured Vito Lammers.

Waimea play Nelson College at Nelson College on Wednesday. Kickoff is at 12.45pm.