Thrilling win in final sends Johnnies to top four
South Island final The scores
John McGlashan .................... 29
Charlie Breen, Ben Joseph, Henry Scott,
Max Hore tries; Hore 3 con, pen
Nelson College ....................... 26
Matt Lowe 2, Hennie Fa’avae, Teina Thompson tries; Xyon Ford 3 con
Halftime: McGlashan 2212.
MOST of us will be calling it the McGlashan Miracle.
But don’t tell Russell Lundy there was anything shocking about his First XV winning the South Island final in Nelson on Saturday.
Johnnies stunned Nelson College, the powerhouse Crusaders champion, 2926 in an electrifying display of skilled and brave schoolboy rugby.
It will mean a historic debut in the national top four tournament in Palmerston North, where the Dunedin school will face Hamilton Boys’ this Friday.
Johnnies have had a great year, its unbeaten run to the Highlanders title built around a massive group of year 13 players who have bags of talent and experience.
Reaching the South Island final was a fine effort but that was not enough for McGlashan, Lundy said.
‘‘Honestly, we did think we could win.
‘‘We’ve had a really good season, clearly, and the feedback we’ve had from some of the teams that we’ve faced has been along the lines of, ‘If you play like that up there, you’ll give them a bit of a hurry up’, and that’s what we managed to do.
‘‘We’re overjoyed, but it’s not like we came here thinking we couldn’t win it.
‘‘It’s a cliche but somebody said to me it was pretty hard to beat a team that doesn’t give up. And these guys will just work and work and work.
‘‘We were hoping this final could be our goal, so we put some big weeks in to prepare everyone. They’ve worked incredibly hard. I’m really happy for them.’’
And now to the promised land. The national top four has been the preserve of the glamour rugby schools for years but there will be an unheralded Dunedin team hoping to create another shockwave this weekend.
‘‘We’ve achieved a very big goal,’’ Lundy said.
‘‘That doesn’t mean we’re done, but it’s something quite special.’’
Nelson had home advantage and a much bigger forward pack, and was coming off a thrashing of St Bede’s in the Crusaders final.
The home side looked fantastic in the opening stages of Saturday’s game as its relentless physicality — led by star No 8 Matt Lowe and a succession of giant locks and midfield backs — threatened to overwhelm McGlashan. But the game then completely changed as Johnnies got hold of the ball and did good things with it.
‘‘I’ve seen it week after week. Southland did the same to us — they threw everything at us,’’ Lundy said.
‘‘Nelson clearly had the best of the first 15 minutes but it was 77, and you got the feeling they’d played to their level but we were able to keep coming.
‘‘That just gave our boys huge confidence.’’
McGlashan’s first try was a peach. The forwards lifted, and Josh Whaanga popped a sublime pass for Charlie Breen to score.
After a clever lineout move led to a Ben Joseph try, Nelson quickly equalised after it pounced on an intercept, but McGlashan had the final say with a try thanks to the long arms of halfback Henry Scott and a Max Hore penalty to make it 2212 at halftime.
Hore, who showed amazing courage to hold up a Nelson frontrower over the line right on the break, then made the play of the game, a delightful chip that Whaanga regathered and returned to the wiry first five for a try that made it 2912.
Nelson dominated the final quarter, and when it scored in the final minutes to close the gap to three, it knew it only needed a penalty to draw the game and progress by virtue of scoring the first try, but Johnnies held firm.
In a team of old heads, year 12 playmaker Hore played the game of his life, delighting his coach.
‘‘He had a fantastic game, and I was really happy for Max.
‘‘He’s a deep thinker about rugby and he piles the pressure on himself, so I was really happy he was able to enjoy an outstanding performance.’’
Whaanga, who led the team out in his 50th game, showed all of his class in a virtuoso display, while midfield partner Jack Timu and fullback Breen were also impressive.
Up front, it would almost be cruel to single out a McGlashan forward as the pack was simply immense, but a nod to lock Zack CleaverDonovan for his efforts.