Ashley draws with Ohoka
It wasn’t the result they would have hoped for with six of the members of the Kowai Senior side from 1958 who won their senior competition 60 years ago watching on. Ashley had pegged Saturday’s clash with Ohoka as a ‘must win’ but instead had to settle for a 20 all draw at Loburn domain on Saturday. The first points of the day went to Ohoka’s Blain O’Loughlin crossing the line after just three minutes. His try was converted by George Wiggins. Ashley hit back racking up three first-half tries, to James Thiele, Richie Hancox and Danny Brooker. None of the tries were converted and Ashley headed into the shed at halftime with a 15-7 lead. A penalty to Wiggins started the Ohoka resurgence in the second half this was followed by a try to Brett Fowler which Wiggins converted giving Ohoka a 17-15 lead. Ohoka continued to dominate but Ashley weren’t giving up. With just five minutes left on the clock Ashley snared a penalty but the kick from Dan Cook was a miss. Ohoka scored again with Wiggins slotting a penalty with only a minute left. Ashley gave everything in the dying seconds with second-five Cameron King levelling the scores after an edge-of-your-seat dive at the line. With Cook’s conversion missed the home side had to settle for the draw.
Saracens took on Southbridge at Southbrook on Saturday. Southbridge lead the homeside 21-17 going into the halftime break after scoring three converted tries. Nathan Goodwin and Nick Wells scored for the homeside in the first half with Ricky Allin slotting two conversions and a penalty. Saracens second half looked brighter thanks to a converted try to Marika Roqica and another to Goodwin, giving the hosts the lead. Then Adam Stone, scored his third try of the match for Southbridge while Saracens were left a man- down after a sin-binning. With time almost up Viliami Fungavaka scored for Saracens with Allin converting. Saracens took the hard fought win 36-31 which gives them a 1-point lead at the top of the Section A table.
Kaiapoi held it’s Club Day on the weekend taking on the section B leaders Prebbleton. The teams were tied at 13 a piece heading into halftime after Prebbleton winger Pita Rokosuka scored his second try just before the break. Rob Samson scored for Kaiapoi in the second half with the visitors replying with a try of their own. Both sides scored penalties. Prebbleton slotted three points in the final three minutes leaving the fulltime result 26 all. In other results Glenmark-Cheviot lost to Hampstead in Hampstead 17-28. Hurunui went down to Hornby 26-21. Oxford was upset by Springston 20-17.