Metro hand out a hammering

The boys had the best first half an hour —

unbelievable. Mark Cosford, Metro Colts coach

St Johns Whanganui Metro showed another MRU Colts opponent the advantage of opening up different attacking patterns in a 65-19 thrashing of Old Boys Marist RC in Whanganui on Saturday.

Outstanding back Tipene Reweti, who has open pathways in touch, league and union, bolted away to score six tries, including a couple of length-of-field efforts after defensive turnovers by his team-mates.

Former Heartland Hurricane Jack O’Leary added a hat-trick to go with his double last weekend.

“The boys had the best first half an hour — unbelievable,” said coach Mark Cosford, who had been preparing his side for a tougher test against their fourth-placed opponent.

“Just out-and-out pace. You never coach speed, you’ve got it [or not], and Tipene and Jack have got that to burn.”

First five Joey Devine ran the cutter well, scoring a try and adding plenty of conversions to his growing tally.

Cosford also singled out blindside flanker Finn Phillips for creating several of the turnovers with his tackling. “It was pick up the player and carry him back a couple of metres.”

Cosford still felt Metro’s defensive concentration could have been better after the strong start, as Old Boys Marist got three tries, including a penalty try.

“It was a wee bit disappointing; we should have held them out better than that.”

Metro have now scored 221 points in five games, 90 more than the Feilding Yellows (131), with none of the other five MRU teams having reached 90 overall, although they have all played one match fewer.

The Whanganui side (4-0-1) will take their bye this weekend, giving the unbeaten Yellows (3-2-0) the chance to go the top of the table, after they maintained second place with a 30-19 away win over Massey University RC.

Regarding the Yellows playing a more defensive style, winning or drawing with smaller scores, which included 16-15 over Metro in Week 1, Cosford said his team tried to attack off first and second five, as well as the typical Manawatu¯ tactic of carrying off the ruck.

“If you stay one-dimensional, it’s quite easy to read.”

Nonetheless, he expects teams like Old Boys Marist to be more difficult second round opponents, now that they have seen what Metro can do in full flight.

“They’ll obviously have a different game plan against us next time.”

Having had the bye last Saturday, the Metro Women’s team will play their final round robin game of a short MRU competition against fellow winless team Bush SC at Bush Sports Park, kick-off 12.45pm.