Feilding leave it late against COB
College Old Boys were mortified to see cool Feilding goalkicker Drew Wild steal the game from them 27-26 in the final second of play at the Arena on Saturday.
For once Feilding’s scrum struggled, in the absence of the injured Sam Wasley and Tietie Tuimauga, while COB deserved to win to reverse their first-round 58-34 defeat.
They were dangerous as they employed quick taps, scored four tries to three and led 26-17 until late in the game.
But the Feilding maul, which set up all three tries, proved decisive when prop Sean Rankin burrowed over to cut the lead to 26-24 with five to play.
TK Howden, soon to depart with the New Zealand under-20s, led the late onslaught and two penalties conceded by Turbos second five-eighth James Tofa, one from a wild missile launch and finally a slapdown of a pass, gave Yellows two crucial openings.
Wild missed the first shot from wide out, but nailed the second closer in and Yellows were jubilant at their great escape.
COB were doing it easily early on, but with Rankin binned COB couldn’t score against 14 men.
With both teams passing up kicks to go to the corner, it took Feilding 30 minutes to equalise.
They equalised again eight minutes after halftime only for COB to add two tries, one from a slick backline overlap.
Feilding should now secure the Centennial Shield for the second round.
Among their standouts were midfielders Frank Prodger and Kyle Brown, first five-eighth Ben Wyness, halfback Griffin Culver and lock Kere Marino.
COB workhorses were flankers Johnny Galloway and Elyjah Crosswell and lock Jared Goodson.
New Turbos signing, Northland and Fijian international prop from Otahuhu, Auckland, Ropate Rinakama, came on for COB.
Te Kawau’s defence in the second half got them through to a 19-10 three-tries-to-two win over
Old Boys-marist at the Arena and have them looking safe for the fourth semifinal spot.
Te Kawau had the incentive of first-five Ethan Woodmass playing his 100th game and in the opening minutes his kick to the corner sat up for Temm Kauri to dot down.
That energised the Real Blokes and it was all their way for the first quarter and they had the territory advantage in the first spell. A try by promising lock Hunter Morrison put them ahead 12-5 at halftime.
Things reversed after the break with OBM camped in Te Kawau’s half, but Te Kawau’s tackling kept them in it.
OBM had many opportunities, but couldn’t finish when the pass was on to put their outsides away.
Co-coach Jason Temara came on only for his pass to be intercepted.
The OBM scrum was strong when new Turbos prop Harrison Allan was on and he scored a try. Ben Werthmuller got the second, but it was in the last play of the game.
Te Kawau have lost Turbos fullback Adam Boult (shoulder) for the season. Their best were Woodmass, lock Liam Mitchell and Turbos flanker Shamus Hurley-langton.
OBM’S standouts were Allan, Matene Ruawai, Roydon Miller and lock Ben Crozier.
Varsity’s monster scrum and hard-running forwards were too much for Feilding Old Boys
roua at Massey University, with the students winning 43-22.
Varsity had threats across the park, including Hurricanes halfback Jamie Booth who was making his first appearance since breaking his leg playing for Manawatu¯ last year.
Booth was at his lively running best in a 40-minute return and with threatening second fiveeighth Hamish Northcott and wing Reece Brosnan, they were dangerous.
Fob-o¯roua led 10-5 early, but were overwhelmed by Varsity, who launched big men Micaiah Torrance-read, Tony WalkerLeawere and Joe Tako at them.
Varsity scored three tries to take control and lead 24-10 at halftime. Their scrum shunted Fob-o¯roua backwards and laid the platform for two tries.
Fob-o¯roua made three consecutive kickoff mistakes, handing Varsity more ball.
It was an even battle for a long period in the second half, before Varsity kicked on again, counterattacking and running the ball, to go out to 43-17.
Fob-o¯roua found a few holes late in the game and closed the gap slightly.
Brosnan was shown a late yellow card when going for an intercept on his line.
Fob-o¯roua centre Taniela Filimone was hard to contain and loose forward Dre Sherwill battled hard.
Kia Toa weathered the early storm and opened the throttle in the second half for a 47-24 win over Freyberg at Bill Brown Park. Freys shot out of the blocks with two tries to lead 10-0 and put the pressure on Kia Toa, but were their own worst enemy at times, with their malfunctioning lineout coughing up ball.
Kia Toa struck back with three tries to lead 19-10 at halftime, then ran in three more after the break to lock up the win.
Kia’s lineout hadn’t been going well, but a rev-up from veteran lock Fraser Stone got things going.
They had tried to go wide too early, but their driving mauls were too hard for Freys to contain.
Freyberg tried to build pressure, but turned over possession too often and Kias took advantage.
When it looked like Freyberg were going to score they would make a mistake.
Kia Toa flanker Bethel Fauolo was a nuisance at the breakdown and stole ball, and also made some big carries.
Freyberg threw the ball around in the second half as they were chasing the game and scored two late tries.
Freyberg’s scrum went well, with front-rowers Darius Mafile’o, Raymond Tuputupu and Feleti Sae-taufo’ou getting through a power of work and giving it heaps at scrum time.
Prop Joseph Gavigan was rested ahead of his New Zealand under-20s commitments.
Carson Hepi looked good at fullback in what was his last game before he has back surgery, second five-eighth Kahn Fotuali’i played well until going off with a head knock and wing Varcon King was always dangerous.
Kia Toa’s standout was midfielder Dean Treanor, who carried hard and distributed the ball well, while veteran Michael Lockwood put in a solid shift at loosehead prop.