Gutsy win for secondary schools over Auckland
The Taranaki Secondary Schools one-off match for the season ended in triumph after they held on to beat their Auckland counterparts 36-33 at New Plymouth’s Sanders Park on Saturday.
With just four training sessions together to prepare for the match, Taranaki were always going to struggle for fluidity, especially against the size of the Auckland side.
However, Taranaki coach Rhys Connell was delighted with the effort the players put in.
Connell said their main point of focus was getting up quickly in defence and trying to put pressure around the breakdown, two things he thought they achieved pretty well for most of the game.
Things did not start well for Taranaki as Auckland raced out to a 14-0 lead off the back of what Connell described as ‘‘soft tries’’.
Taranaki fought back and were only behind 19-12 at halftime.
They then started the second half really well, scoring three excellent tries to open up a reasonably decisive lead.
Auckland then changed their tactics and decided to go more with a pick-and-go style off the rucks which Taranaki struggled to combat.
They managed to hold on at times though, sometimes up to 25 phases, before they finally cracked and Auckland narrowed the gap to just three points.
Taranaki then managed to hold on to fulltime.
Connell praised the effort of the entire squad but singled out flanker and captain Michael Loft for special praise while he was also delighted with the work of second five-eighth Mason Porteous.