Horowhenua Chronicle

‘Exactly what we needed,’ says Foxton player coach

Hard-fought win over COB at Palmy

- RUGBY Bruce Falloon

With perfect sunny autumn conditions at Easton Park, along with a carnival atmosphere, Foxton premieres came away winning over COB Bs side from Palmerston North on Saturday.

The game started with an evenly contested forward rush from both sides, with COB gaining an early try. Moments later from a backline move, COB repeated the dose to be up 10 nil, even though Foxton showed glimmers of 2019 after 20 minutes of running time going into the quarter break.

When play resumed after a few minutes, Foxton opened their ledger on the scoreboard from a movement down the right wing for Isaac O'Rielly to score making the score 10-5.

From this moment on, the play of the game see-sawed up and down the field with both teams matching each other in the play of the game. The score was stabilised with COB leading 10-5 at halftime.

Halftime comments from COB assistant coach Sisa Vulaono: “The game's going well, and we're making sure we keep the pressure on them when we're setting up our pods.”

“We then had our pods running back and forth, back and forth and we just needed to spread out more and make the ball do the work and get it out wide,” Vulaono said.

After halftime the game was still anyone's, and who wanted to own the real estate. Again, tit for tat with both teams scoring a converted try a piece with Foxton fullback Mason Wallace scoring his by the goalposts. This made the score 17-12 with COB leading at the 3⁄4 break.

The game resumed with Foxton's captain Connor Paki making a dash down the right wing and the ball ending up over the touch line. From this COB scored again with the scoreboard showing 22-12.

Foxton fought back with a try of their own taking the tally to 22-19 with about 10 minutes of game time left.

Late in the game with time almost up, and a brilliant team effort, and final forward rush to the line, Foxton forward Dave McErlean crossed the chalk to score. The try was converted.

This was the last scoring in the game and, with time almost up, Foxton only had to hold on to win the game. This they did Foxton beating COB 26-22.

After match comments from Foxton assistant player coach Kenny Hill: “We talked about in our warmup with the intensity of us all with the first game jitters and to get through the first 40 minutes.

“We had no other pre season games leading up to this, we would've had only and barely 14 players at a training session. With this it's an awesome atmosphere out there for the first 40, mainly the first 20 mins.

“Then you get into our structure for this which was setting up our pods early and getting set mainly, cause at times getting ready for rugby early and we were lazy getting around.

“In the second half we were absorbing all which was in front of us really, getting over jitterness and nerves. We all seemed to jell and started to play rugby using our pods.

“This opened up much more running rugby for us, and COB were starting to get a little bit tired.

“There's a lot more new guys this year, with a new guy turning up today.

“Just hard straight running, getting hold of the ball and maintain possession. We're just adapting and keeping things ticking over and keeping up the good comradeshi­p.”

“This was a good hit-out and that's what we needed with us playing Waikanae here next week, this is exactly what we needed,” Hill said.

 ?? ?? Foxton players Pieta Marshall, Jordan Dare, and Brendon Bergist are unlucky to stop a COB player scoring a try.
Foxton players Pieta Marshall, Jordan Dare, and Brendon Bergist are unlucky to stop a COB player scoring a try.
 ?? ?? Foxton Fullback Mason Wallace slips through a gap and heads to the posts to score a try.
Foxton Fullback Mason Wallace slips through a gap and heads to the posts to score a try.
 ?? ?? Foxton captain Connor Paki makes a dash down the touchline.
Foxton captain Connor Paki makes a dash down the touchline.
 ?? ?? Foxton winger Trevior Owens receives the ball from fellow player Jordan Dare.
Foxton winger Trevior Owens receives the ball from fellow player Jordan Dare.

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