Huntly in for treat with Davies Park the venue for both semis
Huntly will be treated to a bumper day of football on Saturday, with Davies Park set to host both semifinals in the Waikato club rugby league competition.
The order the teams have finished after the round robin means top qualifiers Taniwharau will play at their usual home ground against fourth placed Turangawaewae, while the second placed Ngaruawahia Panthers will take on the Hamilton City Tigers at the same venue in the earlier match.
The Panthers are forced from their usual home of League Park, with Davies Park and Hamilton’s Resthills Park used for playoff matches.
All four sides have already qualified for the Waicoa Bays Premiership, which also involves the top four Bay of Plenty sides, while Hukanui and the Hamilton Hornets will battle it out in the Waicoa Bays Championship.
In the last round robin games of the Waikato competition on Saturday, both Hukanui and the Hornets put up a fight against two of the big guns.
Hukanui went down 34-28 away to the Panthers, while the Hornets looked on track to close their campaign with a shock win against the Tigers at Resthills, before being over-run 36-18.
That contest in Hamilton was mainly a decent one, with the Tigers resting a number of their top line players.
As the Tigers’ reserves side had a bye, a number of second tier players slotted in, and a reserve team backline was fielded, barring promising halfback Jamal Tamaiva, with the former Wellington senior representative providing a tidy kicking game, and nailing seven from seven off the tee.
The Hornets were the first to put points on the board, when their standout, prop Fitu Sili, barged over in the 12th minute.
On the back of a penalty for a high tackle, the Tigers hit back midway through the half, when second rower Eli Paul got a nice short ball from Tamaiva.
But the Hornets used their big men well, and an outstanding 20-metre charge from Sili got them into a great position, before Eneliko Sili snuck under a tackle to have their side back in front.
Six minutes before halftime, massive unit Tamaki Courtney bounced off tacklers then dived in to give the Hornets a 14-6 lead. Tamaiva’s nice chip over the top forced a dropout before the break and, again on the back of a high tackle penalty, the Tigers struck, with lock Nicholas Read reaching out from dummy half.
He went from hero to villain five minutes into the second spell though, as things exploded, with an all-in brawl erupting after Read landed a punch and was subsequently sin-binned.
The Hornets got close to extending their advantage twice but lost the ball with the line in sight. Then in the 53rd minute the Tigers hit the front.
On the back of two penalties for slowing down the tackle, the tiny frame of David Hardy scored under the posts out of dummy half.
Just three minutes later, Tigers centre Quinten Hunapo made a great break and went 30 metres to give his side a 24-14 lead after the conversion.
The Hornets didn’t help their own cause, when they were reduced to 12 on 61 minutes with Pete Rameka binned for a punch.
The Tigers took the shot from the penalty and made the margin 12.
Hornets winger Ricardo Ngaruhe almost produced a stunning try soon after when he ran across field on his own 40-metre line then burnt off down the right wing, but he lost the ball forward in the tackle near the try line.
However, with 12 minutes to play the Hornets crossed through Fitu Sili, when he got on the end of a short pass.
At 24-18 the game was still there for the taking, but tries to fullback Jordan Ruki and Read inside the final five minutes ensured victory went to the Tigers.