Mitre 10 TPHS Rugby

TPHS Boys’ 1st XV travelled to Western Heights High School at the weekend to play Aquinas College in the 1st XV Division 2 final and won 31-15.

Te Puke started strongly and with some wonderful forward attack made their way up to the Aquinas 22-metre line.

It was TPHS halfback Johnny Dinsdale’s quick thinking to go shortside that led to him scoring the first try.

At the 20-minute mark, hard-working forward Pena Taumata scored under the posts after patient recycling of the ball and a great pass from playmaker Jack Hollinshead, who slotted the conversion.

A short time later the impressive Jason Tuise broke numerous tackles on a 50m run and gave an excellent pass to in-form winger Te Riiti Karaka-Clarke who scored in the corner.

This woke up the Aquinas side, who made some good forward drives to score 15m in from touch. Aquinas then caught Te Puke napping out wide and with a storming run. The halftime score was 17-10 to TPHS.

The game became a real battle and it was Aquinas who scored 10 minutes in after another forward drive.

The talented Lester Olive set the game alight with a carving 30m run before unselfishly passing to hooker and crowd favourite Teboobo Ngaroa who scored under the bar, Hollinshead converting.

Jason Tuise nabbed another great try after the team worked some good moves up the field, the try again converted by Hollinshead who had another strong game.

Hirini Alexander was impressive on attack and Zac Proctor was immense on defence and in general all game.

Lukas Harris and Ajay Singh had good debut games.

TPHS Girls’ 1st XV vs Mount Maunganui 1st XV — Mount won 15-12

TPHS U14 vs Tauranga Boys’ Blue U14 — Tauranga won 55-12