Pirongia prove no match for fleet-footed visitors Leamington

For the first time in several seasons, Pirongia hosted Leamington in Waikato Club Rugby Division One and One B at Pirongia Domain on Saturday.

On a sedate afternoon, the Cambridge-based Leamington side proved the much stronger opponent, particularly with their fleet-footed backline whom the locals struggled to keep pace with.

With some slick handling and support play. the visitors scored in the first minutes which their kicker converted from near the sideline to take a 7-0 lead.

The mountain men then matched the visitors for the next half an hour as play switched back and forth down the field.

The locals often put phases together and then made a mistake, handing possession back to Leamington.

With some evasive running and slick passing, Leamington scored two converted tries in the last 7 minutes to take a 21-0 lead into halftime.

The second stanza opened like the majority of the first, with both teams having moments on attack.

This was until Leamington tore the game apart between the 50th and 60th minutes, scoring four tries and three conversions to take an unbeatable 47-0 lead.

Pirongia never gave up and finally managed to put right winger Daniel Belk over in the corner in the 67th minute for their first points of the game.

The mountain men then finished the game strongly putting phases together and adding some slick passing to threaten the Leamington defence.

Leamington then ran in another long range try to complete the scoring 52-5.

Players to stand out for the local team were Pirongia’s man of the match prop Rawiri Riddell who was ably assisted by his front row partners hooker Mathew Findsen and Tyreece O’Neill.

They scrummaged impressively, tackled strongly and ran hard all day.

Graham Wade wore the 15 jersey and showed adaptability with his positional play, making some strong tackles as the last line of defence and also looking for work on attack, popping into the line.

Young openside flanker Matt Henderson made several line breaks and probably made the most metres for the home team.

In their earlier match, Pirongia B succumbed 43-19 to Leamington B.

This Saturday, the Pirongia teams host their third home game in a row, taking on Frankton.