Hurunui fall just short on massive road trip
Hurunui faced one of the longest road trips in New Zealand club rugby in Saturday’s round of the Combined Country Cup.
The competition newcomers headed to Hinds to play Southern, and almost pulled off a come from behind victory. They finished with a flourish, scoring two late tries, but it wasn’t enough to stop Southern from winning 36-31.
The round five game was the start of a busy week, with an extra round on Anzac Day meaning most teams were facing three games in the space of a week.
Rakaia’s big week got off to a good start too, but their win came much easier, beating the winless Hornby 64-5 to ensure they remained hot on the heels of section two leaders Darfield.
Darfield gave Scott Mitchell the perfect present for his 200th division one appearance for the club - a 38-18 win over Oxford while third placed Prebbleton recorded a 27-13 win over a Rolleston side yet to win a game.
In the remaining section two game Kaiapoi came away from Methven with a 31-24 win.
In section one Ashburton’s Celtic suffered their first loss of the competition, 27-5 to Saracens, but they remained second in the section one standings behind Waihora, who notched up a big 68-28 win over Ashleyon Saturday.
Southbridge celebrated Jimmy Harvey’s 150th division one game with a win, holding on for a narrow 32-30 win over Lincoln, while Ohoka beat West Melton 49-26.
In Ashburton, Hampstead recovered from a slow start to lead Burnham-Dunsandel-Irwell early, but a run of late points from BDI saw the game blow out to 46-25 in favour of the visitors.
Glenmark and Springston had the bye and will be back in action in the Anzac Day round.