Celtic topple leaders Harlequins
Harlequins’ run of victories in Hamersley Cup senior rugby hit a bump on Saturday.
The senior rugby competition leaders went down 27-24 to a fired up Celtic at Timaru’s Alpine Energy Stadium.
It looked to be another game in the bag for Harlequins as they roared in with three early tries during the first 10 minutes, but Celtic fought back.
‘‘We stuck to our structures and worked our way into it,’’ Celtic coach Scott Barnes said.
At halftime Harlequins led 24-17, and it became a tight struggle in the second half.
Harlequins did not help their cause with two players being yellow carded. ‘‘It was not pretty rugby, but we just worked to get field position,’’ Barnes said.
With 15 minutes to play Harlequins No 8 Siu Kakela was red carded.
Coach Fainga’a Savieti was disappointed. ‘‘We ended up getting beaten, but we beat ourselves. We’ll have to work hard on our discipline. We’ll keep working.’’
Celtic scored a late try to even the scores at 24-all, then halfback Willie Wright slotted a penalty in the Harlequins’ 22 to give Celtic victory. With duckshooting season starting at the weekend some teams played their matches under lights on Thursday night – Geraldine and Mackenzie at Alpine Energy Stadium and Temuka and Pleasant Point at Point. It was a match to remember for the Geraldine Axemen who recorded their first win in two years beating the Rams 20-18 and taking the Lang Family Trophy.
Temuka prevailed over Pleasant Point 22-10.
Old Boys led early in their match against Waimate at School Park and were still in the match when they went to the break being down 21-16. They had their moments in the second half but could not score and Waimate ended up winning 52-16.
Harlequins still retain their top spot on the competition ladder on 25 points ahead of Temuka, 24, Celtic and Waimate are both on 20 with Celtic having the better for and against points, Pleasant Point sit on 14, Mackenzie 10, Geraldine 4 and Old Boys on 0.
In the next round, the feature match will be Celtic against Waimate at Alpine Energy Stadium. Pleasant Point host the Harlequins, Temuka play Mackenzie at the Temuka Domain and Old Boys and Geraldine will have a bottom of the table clash at Geraldine.