Victory slips away in final minutes
Morrinsville Sports As vs Fraser Tech As
Morrinsville travelled to Hamilton to take on Fraser Tech and this game held an extra special meaning for both clubs as they play for the Styivve Cup.
The holders at the time, Fraser Tech, was eager to keep hold of and Morrinsville was willing to take it off them.
Morrinsville pressed hard on the Tech defence, with some telling breaks, but it wasn’t quite enough to get the visitors over the line.
Tech’s discipline was tested and gave away some kickable penalties.
Morrinsville was leading 6-nil and while this was a great start, Tech started to come into the game.
The hosts tested Morrinsville’s defensive line. Morrinsville held strong but there were times when breaks were made and Tech took full advance of this.
At the end of the first half, Tech lead 10-6.
Morrinsville needed to score first in the second half but it was Tech to score a converted try early, with one hand on the Styivve Cup.
With their back against the wall, Morrinsville challenged hard and with some timely replacements, the team got over the advantage line to push back the Tech defence.
Morrinsville mounted some great attacking raids but there were times when decision let them down, giving Tech chances to get out of their red zone.
Morrinsville played their guts out and scored two more tries to take the lead with minutes left.
And as quickly they had the lead, it was taken away from them with Tech slotting a penalty winning 20-18, giving the Morrinsville team and supporters another hard pill to swallow, as another game slipped out of their grasp.
Tries: K Osbourne, C Bracey. Pen: K Osbourne 2 Con 1. POD: J Chambers
Morrinsville Sports Bs Vs Fraser Tech Bs
This
encounter
against Fraser tech was going to be an uphill battle for Morrinsville Bs, with a number of players unavailable for the match.
As the game started, Morrinsville went on the attack and played a lot of the first half in Tech’s half, but with little reward.
There was a penalty midway through the half. Morrinsville went on the attack again and right on halftime scored a try.
But the warm conditions had taken a toll on the team so halftime was a welcome signal to catch their breath and cool down a bit.
Tech started the second half with a try from the kick off and put the pressure back onto Morrinsville.
Tech spent a lot of the time in their own half and lived on Morrinsville’s mistakes which came as the team was playing on sheer guts as the heat and player depth was tested.
Tech responded with tries of their own and leading 29-8.
With 10 minutes left, Morrinsville came out and powered into the Tech side.
With one final push, Morrinsville was able to score two tries and convert one of them leaving the final score 29-20 to Tech.
Big thanks to the players for not giving up and playing the full 80 minutes and to Chooky coming on and playing, helping the team.
Tries: L Roach, M Wratt, C Singh. Convers C Singh 1 Pen 1. POD: A Minimita Reports by Nolan Hagoort
Kereone vs Te Awamutu Marist
Silvester Electrical Kereone travelled away to play Te Awamutu Marist on Saturday.
Kereone started well and made use of some early dominance in possession and territory to open the scoring with Kerry Diamond crossing after a strong run.
Glynn Tipping was next to score after a quick lineout caught the Marist defence napping.
Kereone again found themselves on attack and a quick tap and some nice passing saw lock Tim Waetford score under the posts.
Marist came back before halftime with two tries of their own to leave Kereone leading at halftime 19-14.
Marist was first to score in the second half to take the lead before Kereone was awarded a penalty in front of the posts which was kicked by Damian Silvester to go back in front 22-21.
The remainder of the second half was an even contest with Marist scoring again before Kereone halfback Claude Piggott dived across in the corner leaving Damian Silvester with the conversion to put Kereone back into the lead.
This was calmly slotted from the corner to take Kereone to victory 29 - 28. NZ Farmers Player of the Day was Stephen Sing.