Penalty tips Valley over line
LAST season’s Citizens Shield winners Valley had to repel a strong attack from last season’s bottom team Athletic Marist on Saturday.
Valley won 4140, while in the other games Old Boys beat Excelsior 7512 and Maheno beat Kurow 2120.
Valley was up 2821 at halftime and then pulled away but it just held on.
It dominated the first quarter but took 20 minutes to get a 147 lead, building on it in the second quarter.
A dogged Athletic Marist defence held Valley to a 2821 halftime lead.
With 15 minutes left the score was 33all, but in the end a Sam Sturgess penalty was the difference.
Old Boys bolted out to a 350 halftime lead against Excelsior and in the second half it added a further 40 points to win 7512.
The individual individual effort came from Old Boys fiveeighth Logan Wilson, who was making his club debut, converted 10 of the 11 tries scored.
For Excelsior Josh Phipps and Komatu Tangtinu scored tries, while Phipps added a conversion. Kurow just fell to Maheno. Maheno’s captain Hayden Tisdall put his side on the board with a try, which Robbie Smith extended to 70. A minute later Kurow threequarter Dean Fenwick went in for the first of his two tries and Sam McDonald’s conversion levelled the score.
Just before halftime Sam Tatatua and Henry Mitchell added tries, both of which were converted by Smith, giving Maheno a 217 halftime lead.
Fenwick crossed for his second try in the 56th minute and Tyler Burgess added a penalty but could not convert Jack Reid’s try.
University 47 Harbour 38
Harbour trailed University 4712 before it had hauled the anchor all the way in at Forsyth Barr Stadium on Saturday.
Powerful second fiveeighth Willie Tufui pummelled his way through heavy traffic to score.
It was the late spark the Hawks needed. They scored 36 unanswered points to save some blushes in the 4738 loss.
But the contest was already over when impressive University flanker Josh Hill scored early in the second half to give his side a 357 lead.
Hill was dynamic in the lineout and prominent in the loose, while first fiveeighth Sam Clarke kicked three penalties and four conversions in a good performance as well.
Shortly after Hill got across, halfback Kieran McClea took a quick tap and scampered 90m to score.
That really was a dagger for Harbour, which produced a flat opening 60 minutes. Losing a man to the sin bin either side of halftime certainly did not help either.
Hawks flanker Oliver Parkinson scored in the corner in a nice solo effort from 40m out. But University hooker Ricky Jackson came up with an even better effort from a similar distance.
He sprinted through a gap and then looked around for support only to find none. So he pulled out a goose step and set off on an angled run to the corner. Terrific effort.
University shuffled its lineup around in the final quarter and Harbour ran in a series of consolation tries.
Taieri 21 Dunedin 19
A very tense, close encounter with some magnificent defence ended up with a hometeam victory at Peter Johnstone Park.
Taieri knows how to win the tight ones. With a twopoint lead and down to 13 players with a minute to play, it did just enough.
Dunedin started the way it finished last week and gave up a sevenpoint intercept try inside the first minute to lock Ben Morris who galloped 40m to score. Dunedin dominated the last 20 minutes of the spell with tries to fullback Caleb Makene and flanker Angus Duckett.
The key moment of the game occurred 20 minutes into the second spell when Dunedin had to take off Highlander Caleb Makene as he had been the dominant back in the game.
At the same time, Taieri bought on Matt Whaanga for his last game of the season before heading to Southland. He scored two tries after 26 and 34 minutes of the second spell to win the game for the Eels.
Dunedin did not give up and spent the last six minutes of the game camped on the Taieri line. The home team gave up some cynical penalties to concede a penalty try and had two players in the bin but did enough to hang on and win an enthralling game.
For Taieri, openside flanker Nick Henderson was its best while Whaanga and fullback Caleb Leef were the standouts in the backline.
Makene was outstanding for Dunedin and midfielder Keenan ChristianGoss was extremely tidy. Prop Kees Scott played his best game for Dunedin and hooker Sam Rainger displayed some outrageous handling and passing skills.
Green Island 50 ZingariRichmond 24
Green Island put 40 points past ZingariRichmond in the opening 40 minutes at Montecillo.
The likes of Dylan Nel, Ray Nu’u, Sam Gilbert and Neria Fomai split the Colours defence to help clinch a 5024 win.
There was a series of longrange tries and some sparkling rugby played by the Grizzlies.
Perhaps the best try was scored just before halftime. Green Island packed down a scrum 10m out from its own line.
Rather than clear the ball the team spun it to Fomai, who has signed a shortterm contract with Highlanders. The left winger took off, casting would be tacklers aside.
He was finally pulled down 5m short but found Nu’u in support who got collared just short but popped it to halfback James Arscott to score.
They are the sort of tries which can break apart any remaining resolve. But the Colours rallied in the second spell.
Kayne Hammington came on at halfback and former All Black Nehe MilnerSkudder moved to first fiveeighth.
Those changes sparked a dramatic turnaround. ZingariRichmond dominated the second half.
Chris McNoe grabbed a brace of tries and loose forward Simon Pupualii crossed as well.
And a late penalty try meant ZingariRichmond was able to get a bonus point out of the game for four tries.
Green Island loosies Sean Jansen and Jesse Va’afusuaga had solid games, while Ciaran Jansen stood out for the home side in the lineout and Hammington brought a lot of energy to the match.
Kaikorai 27 Southern 25
Kaikorai snatched a last minute fourtry bonus point 2725 victory against an imposing Southern side in a startstop affair at Bishopscourt.
Southern was camped inside the Kaikorai half for the majority of the first half. But it was the home side which turned its rare incursions in Southern territory into points, through tries to flankers Slade McDowall and Jake Russ.
And just as it appeared it was heading to dot down for a third and run away with a onesided victory, it turned the ball over. Southern fullback Obey Samate burst 70m up field only for desperate defence to force his progress close to the touchline 20m out.
His clever kick ahead was then gathered in by replacement first fiveeighth Jack Leslie, who dived over for the try. Samate added the extras to put the visiting side back in the contest with a halftime score favouring Kaikorai 1510.
Buoyed by Leslie's try, Southern dominated the early exchanges after the break, capitalising through two tries in quick succession to halfback Graham Urquhart, to hold a 2215 lead.
As both sides cleared their benches, the game meandered until the final 10 minutes when Kaikorai burst into life, eventually scoring through lock Zack McKenzie in the 77th minute and replacement hooker Mitch Pryde in the final play of the game.
Kaikorai was wellserved by McKenzie, No 8 Christian LioWillie and first fiveeighth Ben Miller. Urquhart delivered good clean ball to an enterprising Southern backline, in which Samate always posed as a threat.