Notices

Club Day – Saturday 21st May

One thing the exec were wanting to do this year is to invited the parents and family of each team’s players along for and evening at the clubrooms. We’ve decided to do this on our Club day, which is on the 21st of May. So, please extend the invitation on our behalf.

Prior to the Div 1 game both teams will line up at the start of the game for a time of silence to remember Margaret Hockley, Dick’s wife, who died last month. And, the Trophy will be presented on the field at the end of the game by Hockley family members, specifically Dick’s children (Pauline, Judith – and hopefully Peter). Dick’s brother will also be in attendance. Dick was a life member of both clubs.

Club Day Parking

With all of us playing at home plus 3 soccer games running at 2:30, please make sure you allow plenty of time to get to your games and don’t expect to find a park in the main carpark. Car pool where possible and make life easy on yourself – try Dovedale Ave or in the Science carpark off Ilam Rd, especially if you have a 2:45pm game.

Be a good neighbour!

Please be aware that when making your way home from the clubrooms on a Saturday night, you should be using either of the driveways (preferably the sealed one) and NOT walking home through the middle of the UC Accommodation Village. There have been some complaints in this regard, please don’t let it happen again.

Clubrooms Food

The netball exec do a good job of running the kitchen on a Saturday night, please support them by ordering your food through the kitchen. Food brought elsewhere by players shouldn’t be brought in to the clubrooms. All food purchases get used to help keep costs down for prizegiving. The exec personally recommend the burgers!

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

21st May – Club Day

28th May – Quiz Night – $5 per person, teams of max. 5 players. Get your entries in to Grimace: crisbridger@gmail.com.

Duty

Bar Manager – Sam McDell

Lock Up – Fluff

Duty Team – Div 1

Match Reports

Div 1 – courtesy of the CRFU website

At Lincoln: Lincoln University 44 (Nick Lake 2, Jack Goodhue, Harrison Groundwater, Jack Stratton, Luke McKenna, Josh McKay tries; Brett Cameron 3 conv, pen) beat University 17 (Finlay Christie, Cam Watkins tries; Marty McKenzie 2 conv, pen). HT: 15-10. Sin-bin: Ashton Tuck (Lincoln University). Referee: Blair Barclay.

It wasn’t a case of too many chiefs and not enough Indians for Lincoln University as they piled on the points in the second half to bury University.

The only Chief on the perfect pitch was Dominic Bird, getting game time in to keep building up from a broken foot while his Super franchise has the bye.

The All Black lock wasn’t the prime target in the lineouts until Jack Powell was substituted but he set the tone with a buffeting run early, put in some telling tackles, and kept his nose to the grindstone for 80min.

Crusader Jimmy Tupou carried well for University in his 70min effort and like Bird put the team first.

Marty McKenzie was an 11^th-hour call-up for University, adding more top-line professional flavour to the mix. McKenzie seemed to be everywhere at once, cutting a dashing figure from fullback, establishing his presence when he figured twice in a movement that created the first try of the match.

Livewire halfback Finlay Christie made the touchdown before going on to embellish his reputation with swift delivery and speed off the mark on the burst.

But the most startling acceleration and step came from Lincoln first-five Brett Cameron. The youngster’s efforts might not have led directly to tries, but several times he carried Lincoln deep into enemy territory and otherwise had University chasing shadows, which opened up play for others.

Jack Goodhue, with a quick flat pass from Cameron, did his knife-through-butter trick a minute or so after Christie scored for University and did it again early in the second half, putting Harrison Groundwater across.

It may or may not have been a coincidence but Goodhue’s marker was Elia Elia, normally a hooker or No.8, called in at late notice to deputise for Isaac Leota. To be fair, Elia did not look too much out of place, having his moments on attack.

For Lincoln, Jack Stratton had a big influence from halfback for 60min, not least for his well-directed powerful punting. He fired a long bullet pass on the blindside to give Nick Lake his first try and was unstoppable from 20m out for his own touchdown 15min after the break.

Shortly after that, openside flanker Luke McKenna showed outstanding pace to score Lincoln’s fifth try.

The worry for other sides to come is that Lincoln had such talented youngsters as Ere Enari and Josh McKay to call on as substitutes. When McKay dashed away for his try, he left the defence for dead.

Women – Courtesy of Sophie Anderson

Twas a balmy day out at Lincoln University where the Viperettes took on the unknown local team… (And the Warriors were playing the same night, wooooooo!)

The game started with too many early turnovers in the opening patch… We finally found our stride with strong runs by Whit and Poss which lead to some fancy footwork by Taylor to easily cut through and score our first try, converted by Liv. Liv followed that up with a try for herself after a beautiful pass from Keilamarita….The game slowed and was pretty stop and start, after a period of not much going on play, Fiona nabs a loose ball to cruise down the sideline to score..

Not to be outdone Keilamarita’s footwork of a skip, step and swerve (not even Shaun Johnston can move like that) sees her make something out of nothing and makes her way to the try line only to be caught cms short where she offloads to the ever faithful Jessie Hansen to score at the posts,

After a few penalties for ridiculous reasons the ref helps lincoln dot down, but with a quick bit of advice from Ernie the ref realises he is wrong and apologises. One up to Ernie!..

Second half saw much the same as the first half, unforced errors, which wasn’t helped by the screamer from Lincoln Uni, I’m not sure what they teach them out that way!

We had good goal line defence to hold them out.

Finally we got possession again and worked our way up field where Jessie broke through the line and made her way to the try line to slam dunk the ball down, even Michael Jordan would have been proud to see that.

We welcomed Katie back from injury and with her first touch of the ball she scores in the left hand corner…( I’m not sure if it was her first touch but it sounded good)

At this time I bolted back to watch a real game*… #upthewarriors only to be disappointed!! Should I be surprised!

Another try by Fi sealed the deal and we came away with the win 43-5

Rebecca Pratley was player of the day and very well deserved.

Lots to take away from that game. Watch out Linwood next week!

* The editor does not endorse these comments.

Div 2 – Courtesy of Justin Rafton

After another fantastic opening 20, the Div 2 lads just failed to finish falling to Lincoln in the annual University clash, 15-33.

After three losses on the trot, the team wanted nothing more than to get a W and stay above .500 on the season. And everything went to plan early. After an initial steal at ruck time by open side Tom Paton, who had a blinder himself, the Yams kicked for the corner and kept play inside the Lincoln 22. Early handling errors and the inability to get ball to width all but restricted an early try. However after a strong shunt on a defensive scrum five metres out, the Lincoln half through a loose ball into their in-goal and centre Anthony Taite dove on the pill for the first points; converted by Benjamin Fox.

The Yams continued on attack and were again awarded with Foxy scoring from metres out after a nice stiff arm. Yet, as had been the case for the last three weeks, Uni could just not put the foot on the throat when needed and put the opponent away. A knock on inside their own 22 led to Lincoln’s first converted try quickly followed by another, an easy pick off the side of a ruck for their scrummy to find a gap. Lincoln took the lead at the break, 14-12.

The second half started similar to the first, with Varsity quickly gaining the upperhand and controlling the possession. But reminiscent of the Super Rugby clash the previous evening between the mighty Crusaders and those Highlanders, Lincoln Div 2 made the most of their limited time with the pill. Their industrial number 8 scored off of an intercept early in the half. Uni responded with a penalty from about 40 out off of the boot of Foxy; he truly has grabbed the bull by its horns since being entrusted with the kicking duties following the departure of Linesey. Those were the last points Uni would get on the board. Lincoln would score another out wide on the right to truly put the game out of reach. The team finished with a flurry but it was all for not. If ever there was a time to turn this season around, it comes beckoning with Club Day against Burnside in less than a weeks time.

Special mention in this one has to go to Nga Selby-Rickit for again proving he is the best lineout winner in the comp (if only he could last a bit deeper into games), Tom Paton was a man mountain over the ball, winning back at least half of the pill he endeavoured to steal and Oscar Nesbitt lead the team around brilliantly in his captaincy debut for the Yams.

‘Brett Menefy’ Players’ Man of the Match: Anthony Taite, whose had back to back stellar performances both at centre and on the wing, breaking tackles at will and continuously finding the gap. He has really demonstrated his value and hopefully he will put his ‘hoop’ dreams on hold for a couple weeks to continue to play for the Yams.

Colts Prem – Courtesy of Matt “Five Tries” Little

The Prem Colts had a rough day at the office this weekend as we came up against a defiant Lincoln team. We struggled to play to our game plan and were outclassed by Lincoln’s well drilled set piece and also their rolling maul which was an impressive display of strength that we were unable to counter.

The boys stuck out the game with some honourable mentions going to Harry Ferguson for a particularly gutsy effort, playing the full game despite being sick on the field and also Max Street for his impressive solo effort try that got us on the scoreboard.

Player of the day went to Charlie Viane Sofe for his strength in the midfield.

With a final score of 46-7 we’ve got a big week ahead to take what we’ve learned against this opposition and use it to improve for the next game.

Div 3 Tigers – Courtesy of Sef Erasito

What a weekend it was for the Tigers!! Half the boys rocked up to the changing sheds beaming from ear to ear after the Highlanders dealt to the Crusaders. And that try scoring winning ability somehow transitioned its way up SH1 to Ilam fields because there was a party at Hardons after the Tigers put on an admiring display of try scoring rugby beating Otautahi 39 -17. After watching the Highlanders trounce the Crusaders there was definitely a buzz in the air amongst the Otago faithful that they were going to bring that same intensity and hunger to Saturdays game.

Openside flanker Jed Watts, an alum of Otago university, opened up the scoring picking up a loose ball and sprinting down the centre of the park out running both wingers and the fullback to dot down under the posts. Captain Logan Thomson, a staunch supporter of the ‘landers who also has added a cat to the family, Malakai Feki-Thomson, collected another try adding to his leading try tally for the Tigers. Sef Erasito represented the front-row club and got his first try for the Tigers, charging to the line like a steam engine, picking up a loose pass and showing some nifty foot work to sneak pass the fullback. The backs also showed how impressive they can be with ball in hand scoring to tries for set pieces to Luke Marsh and Brad Dean. Dean came off close to the final whistle with what we now know is a broken rib and our thoughts are with him for a speedy recovery. Not to be out done by Watts, replacement flanker Dane Hart finished the try scoring fest with some good support play with a quick pick and go and a big stretch over the line.

Otautahi came with the intensity and aggression that they are known for and a couple of tries only got them even hungrier to steal a win from the Tigers. The mana that the Otautahi boys have in their jersey is immense and give them a sniff and they’ll turn it into a feeding frenzy.

It was also a special occasion for the Tigers with team stalwart Chris Risbridger colleting his 100^th cap for the Tigers. His contribution and commitment to not only the Tigers but the club as a whole is something special and very much appreciated. I give my congratulations to Grimace and I don’t doubt that there will be a lot more people who would want to share a beer with you this Saturday.

POD: Grimace

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Tigers enjoying some post match hydration after Grimace’s 100th game. L-R Chris “Grimace” Risbridger, Jorn Dijkstra, Jaln Rodger, someone’s knee.

Colts – Courtesy of Sam Jaques

The colts side came up against a well drilled and determined Lincoln side this week. It was clear from the start the Lincoln boys were going to be physical and showed this in their dominance at set piece and rucks. We struggled with the initial pace of the game and couldn’t gain any forward momentum. Lincoln continued to build pressure throughout the first half and came out several tries ahead going into the break.

With a kick up the arse at half time the boys managed a more aggressive and competitive start to the second half. Some skill from the wings allowed us to run in a couple of tries getting us out of some tight spots. However, we were still under the pump and were struggling to string together more than a couple of phases to build pressure. Lincoln finished the dominant team with a final score of 31-17, with our player of the day going to Teegan Vink.