Notices

Teams on bar duty and exec member on lockup – please make sure tables are wiped and chairs are put up on tables at the end of the night. Full instructions are available on the green laminated sheets posted behind the bar.

Subs – thanks to the overwhelming majority of players who have paid their subs in full and on time. For those who haven’t the account number is 01 0833 0077395 00. Full season subs are now $175 for those who have yet to pay anything. Those who are paying off in installments and started before April 2nd pay $150.

 

Events

7th May – Band Night and Netball Fridge Raffle. Come dressed in theme, with the first letter of your team as your inspiration. See here for more details.

14th May – Lincoln Uni Clash at LU

21st May – Club Day

 

 Duty

Bar Duty Team: Div 2

Bar Manager: Ange/Holly (Netball)

Lock Up: Lofty

 

Match Reports

Div 1

15 – 13 Loss vs Sydenham

No report received – this comes from the CRFU website.

Sydenham scored a come from behind win, in official’s time, with a close-range penalty goal by Kieran Lindsay. Both teams scored two tries and the difference in the end was that the home team converted one of theirs and the visitors’ none.

Sydenham, playing into the wind, started promisingly and had points on the board after 7min following a 30m Mike Herring break, attacking scrum win and an off-load to Jordan Stone who ran wide and scooted over the line.

This seemed to over excite Sydenham who proceeded to turn the ball over at the breakdown through lack of numbers, failure to support the ball-carrier, lateral movement and impatience as they attempted to score off everything before the foundation was laid.

University fed on this, isolating the ball-carrier, putting numbers into the contact and replying with hard, straight running at the opposition backline with second-five Isaac Leota and fullback Cam Watkins playing conspicuous roles.

This approach coincided with the Cardinals’ midfield defence taking leave of absence and only a failure to finish the opportunities created prevented the students disappearing out of sight.

A graphic example in the 20^thmin was when a strong Sydenham attack, halted 3m out through lack of support, saw the maroons grab the loose ball and travel 80m down the left flank.  A quick recycle at the contact and switch right created a three-on-one on the right and Sam Godwin dotted down.

The second quarter was uneventful continuing the pattern of the first until the 33^rd min when another Sydenham turnover created a long range counter-attacking opportunity which University exploited and Conor O’Leary was over to give the visitors a five-point half-time lead.

Sydenham regained the lead in the 52^nd min after showing commitment, patience and desperation at the contact, with Kalave Auali’itia prominent, stitching together nine phases and creating the opportunity for Stone to score his second try. Lindsay converted.

University reclaimed it with a Bradley Hemopo penalty goal. The last 10min produced some of the more structured rugby of the match as University sought to close it out and a desperate, never give up, Sydenham tried to snatch it.

Four minutes from full-time Sydenham declined a kick at goal and kicked for the corner. Unfortunately for Sydenham the ball went dead in goal bringing a collective groan from local supporters.

Referee Reed became the centre of attention in the dying moments as his every twitch and glance at his watch created breath-holding moments for both sides. Then, a final Sydenham attack was halted on the University 22m with a tackle ruled to be high and Lindsay closed the game out with a calmly slotted penalty.

In a match up that was frustrating for the squandered opportunities by both sides and exciting and tense because of the closeness of the scores, Sydenham finally prevailed because it appeared more desperate in the closing moments.

Sydenham players to rate were captain Liam Smart, who worked hard in the dark places and led by example, Auali’itia and Scott Kelly who took the ball up powerfully. Halfback Stone and did lots of tidying up away from the action and replacement Ila Lamositele’s charging run late in the game was only halted 15m out by frantic defence.

For University, Leota and Watkins created defensive turmoil with their hard straight running from the back, while halfback Christie featured with quick and accurate clearances and backing up. Captain Godwin was strong at the breakdown, and Caleb Aperahama and O’Leary performed their set piece roles effectively and featured positively in the contact.

 

Women

0 – 90 Win vs Kaiapoi

Player of the Day was Keilamarita Pouri-Lane

Div 2

12 – 33 Win vs Belfast

Amidst pristine conditions at Sheldon Park, the UC Yams got a little revenge from last years dismal display in the Northern suburb, defeating Belfast this time around 33-12. After admittedly taking the Cobras lightly in 2015, the Division 2 boys went full noise from the opening whistle, making their presence felt early. The defensive effort the entire first half was resolute, not allowing Belfast into the attacking 22 once in 40 minutes. On the flip side, the pattern worked a treat, allowing the Yams to break the line at will.

The loose forward trio of captain Jamie Verstappen, openside Josh Joubert and the big man at the back, Fraser Bryant were tough tasks to bring down, gaining metres on every carry. It was the backs though that would find reward from these gains, as winger Andrew Maebiru rumbled over for his first try of the year. The tricky conversion was then slotted by Chris Lines, who had another strong day with the boot going 4 from 5. He will be sorely missed in the weeks to come as he has accepted a job opportunity in the North Island. The Yams kept the points rolling in scoring another 3 tries in the half. First five Benjamin Foxy showed off his step to scamper under the posts for a fiver. Then second five Henry Boon, despite limited practice time with the team, kept finding daylight ahead of him and grabbed himself a double. The Yams should have finished the half with an absolute stunner, set up with a beautiful passage of plays from Lines, Rafton, Selby-Rickitt and Nesbitt which would have made the Chiefs jealous; however it was called back for a non-existent forward pass.

Both coaches were fizzing at halftime, encouraging the boys to at least double their score. And the second 40 definitely started that way, with Henry Boon breaking the defense again to score his third under the post. This was enough of a sign to make whirlwind changes off the bench, with nearly an entire new forward pack coming off the bench. The game turned a little sloppy at this point, and though the Div 2 boys still showed an attacking prerogative that got them deep into the Belfast half, they would not score again. Belfast however would score two weakly defended tries near the end to make the score a little more respectable. Tempers flared a bit at the death, but the Yams still walked away with a resounding victory.

The only real issue for the Yams on the day was at set piece, as the scrum was not well refereed allowing the bigger Belfast pack the ability to stand up and the lineout, which worked so well in Week 1, was just a little off its timing; both work-ons for Week 3 as the team heads back to the Veggie Patch. Following the game, a few boys were asked for comments on the win. Backs coach Elis Evens, never one easily impressed, noted: “great first half of code from the lads, good structure and d’d up well. Second half got a bit sloppy, but overall a solid performance from the Yams”. Jaden ‘Wally’ Wallace, who seemed to play every position in the backline throughout the game added, “I’m just here so I don’t get fined”.

Special mention has to go to tighthead prop Kensei Kobayashi, for a strong scrummaging performance, destructive carries and some bone crushing tackles. Lock Sam McDell also was a beast around the paddock in his first start for the Yams this year. Winger Jonty Nesbitt was strong under the high ball and made decent metres, despite constantly being outnumbered on the outside. Finally, a congratulations has to go out to our captain, Jamie Verstappen on reaching 50 games for Division 2. ‘Bazza Menefy’ Player’s Man of the Match: Henry Boon who finished on a hat trick and is looking forward to shouting the team a crate next weekend in the clubbies.

 

Colts Prem

46 – 5 Loss vs Marist Albion

The second game of the season sent the colts prems to South Hagley to play Marist Albion. To say we had a slow start would be an understatement letting them score 5 easy try’s in the first half. After a stern talking to at half time on being more aggressive and sticking to our game plan we switched on and started playing proper rugby. We were able to score the first try of the second half when Matt Janett busted through two defenders to put Kieren Hunt away in the corner. We had multiple chances to score in the second half but were unfortunately unable to finish. Our defence definitely improved in the second half only giving away two tries (they had to really fight for it). In all we were pretty happy with the way we were able to fight back in the second half, we have a lot to work on and are looking forward to next week.

Player of the day was Cullen Simpson

 

Colts

21 – 23 Win vs Glenmark/Cheviot

This week the reserve colts were undermanned due to it being the first week of holidays. Nevertheless we took off with around about 18 men on what ended up being over a 2 hour bus ride out to Cheviot. We were given 6 minutes to do our warm up as a result and our first half of rugby was scrappy, poorly structured and we gave up points as a consequence. Jonny Pethybridge’s boot kept us in contention. We ended the half down 14 points to 8.

After a good half-time spray from coach Daniel Smyth we were ready to get back out there, get the comms up and try to string together a few phases. We came right back in the second half, holding onto the ball, keeping a very tight defence, and having quick, unpredictable and relentless attack. Max Street and Tauli Aperaamo excellent on their respective wings, both scoring crucial tries to keep pushing the game. A successful penalty goal put us two points ahead with 5 minutes to go and we were able to close out the game 23-21.

Player of the day was Jonny Pethybridge whose accurate kicking kept us in the hunt and inevitably won the game for us, though a special mention has to be given to Josh Bee who nearly out-sprinted an entire backline from blindside flanker and had a superb work-rate.

 

Div 3

22 – 14 Win vs Suburbs

It was good to see the “W” on the whiteboard in the clubrooms Saturday evening. After our loss last week, we worked hard trying to get our backs combinations to gel and forwards running in the right spaces and it certainly paid dividends on the week, without it being a cliché, you can clearly say that it was a team effort.

Suburbs definitely came to play with what seemed like a whole battalion of players, we later found out they were a mix of div 2 players, under18s, vets and league players. Being a team of big brown brothers they played exactly how we thought they would by doing the island side step and running over everyone in their path. But with our rush defence, we did our best to chop them down and pressure their backs to make mistakes.

We enjoyed some good territory thanks to some clearance kicks from Shot who also showed some wheels and determination to chase down, tackle and turnover what would’ve been a definite run away try to Suburbs to get them within 1. The backs were able to work on their combos and support play which paid off scoring some really good tries, the tigers scrum continued their dominance just loosing 2 or 3 opposition feeds and winning every other scrum after that. It was such a display of dominance that we pushed over for a beautiful forwards try and our halfback would wait for the ball at the back of our scrum at every opposition feed.

All in all the Tigers showed a lot of mana, and we’re starting to play like a cohesive team. And without even tapping into our potential, there’s a lot of expectation for ourselves fot the rest of the season.

Shout out to Jonny Baird who has gotten in touch and is doing well after surgery.

Player of the Day – Logan Thomson

Dick of the Day – Grimace for getting piss-poled by an 18 year old