Team –Women

Bar Manager – Sue/Ange

Lock Up – John Wright

DIV 1 – COURTESY OF THE CRFU WEBSITE

At Rawhiti Domain: New Brighton 26 (Henare Faithfull, Zac Trusler tries; Scott Davidson 2 conv, 4 pen) beat University 5 (Morgyn Cowan try). HT: 16-0. Referee: Liam Scanlon.

New Brighton played the percentages and wore down a somewhat disorganised University to win comfortably in a rather nondescript game.

New Brighton’s superior work in the scrums and lineouts provided a reliable platform to work from and enabled the home team to pressure the visitors into errors and to concede penalties in kickable positions allowing first-five Scott Davidson to notch up a 100 per cent record. He converted both tries and kicked and four penalties.

The score-line would have been much greater had it not been for the students’ tenacious defence close to their line. Three times they forced turnovers and twice more earned defensive penalties with the home team just inches from scoring.

New Brighton’ handling several times let them down in promising positions as they took the game to the students.

Davidson opened the scoring on 2min with a simple penalty goal. Then on 16min, a sustained period on attack where No.8 Aaron McCoy and prop Oliver Jager went close, Brighton was finally rewarded with a try in the corner to wing Henare Faithfull, who had enough room to outflank his marker and dot the ball down.

Try as they may the seasiders could not break through a stoic University defence again before the break. Their only reward was two more Davidson penalty goals for a hard-earned 16-0 lead at the break.

University rarely threatened. They had moments of possession where it looked like they may develop but nothing eventuated.

After the break it was more of the same. Nothing really gelled for either side, and as the match wore on it deteriorated as both teams became less organised and the match lost its shape altogether.

Davidson extended the lead with his fourth penalty on 52min.

University right wing Nic Brooker broke out from inside his 22m and looked to have run away, only to find the assistant referee with his flag up. He had just grazed the side-line avoiding a despairing tackle.

University had more possession in this half but were unable to put it to good use. From one maul inside the New Brighton 22m, University were dismayed to see New Brighton prop Carisbrook To’omalatai emerge from the depths into clear air with no-one in front of him.

To’omalatai took off with students in pursuit and made it almost to halfway before offloading a perfect pass to replacement left wing Zac Trusler, who had no one to beat as he ran in the easiest of tries.

At 26-0 down and only 12min left University were out of it, but they continued to throw the ball about. Camping on New Brighton’s line they finally found enough muscle to outflank the seasiders’ defence, openside flanker Morgyn Cowan crossing for University’s only points with 5min left.

For New Brighton, captain/flanker Billy Harmon, McCoy, lock Taua Limuloa, and props Jager and To’omalatai had strong games up front. Replacement loosie Troy Mangan put in some bone-jarring tackles.

Davidson was all purpose and had an excellent kicking game. Wings Faithfull and John Vili and fullback Stefan Moir showed speed and enterprise on attack.

University halfback Finlay Christie was again the driving force behind the students’ attacks, He distributed cleanly but the backline lacked penetration on attack with only Brooker showing any purpose.

Up front Cowan had a strong showing alongside captain/No.8 Sam Godwin. Lock Caleb Aperahama was busy in the lineouts and in the loose.

Womens –

Won 27 – 13 against Suburbs.

Player of the day was Fiona Wright

Div 2 – Courtesy of Justin Rafton

The veggie patch had been well watered and proved a heavy track as the Yams made tough work of it, pulling it out on the final play to overcome Belfast, 11-10 as the second round gets underway.

With many boys still off on injury or away for school holidays, it was once again a team lacking in positional continuity and playing time together on the paddock. This showed early as the Yams let Belfast carry deep into their half and eventually score under the post; first up tackles were once again lacking for most of the day.

The forward pack though, flexed their muscle throughout and were the talking point in the shed post match. Flankers Tom Paton and Torin Rensford were immense on defense, stealing countless pill and putting the opposition on their hind foot. This dominance was met throughout the eight big man unit, as they won nearly all of the lineouts, both their own thanks to arguably the best lineout jumper in the comp, Nga Selby-Rickit pairing with Keiran Howden’s extraordinary knack to steal the throw off Belfast time and time again.

The scrum was a standout, countless times putting the tattooed Belfast scrum on their rears. The Yams practically lived in the Belfast 22 for most of the remaining half. Twice the Yams drove mauls to within a whisper of the goal line before they were illegally pulled down. Even with all of this territory, simple mistakes kept costing that much needed finishing touch. It has to be added though that the continuity of play was being immensely haltered by countless hands in the ruck from the opposition providing tough conditions for scrummy Takumi Kawahara to provide good seed.

Before this write up continues, an addendum must be added here in regards to the lack of scores. In two years of write-ups, the contributor has never once made reference to poor officiating. However it would be a disservice to the game we all love to not note this here for future reference. The Queensland referee obviously had not been over this side of the Tasman too long or aware of how positive code should be played and promoted. But to allow eight consecutive ruck infringement penalties, three intentional collapsed mauls and four push over collapsed scrums without ever considering going to the pocket allowed negative play to continue.

My apologies; rant over.

Back to the highlights; Dan Hydman should have gone in for at least two himself however the last pass to put him away were called forward out of the hands of Joseph George-Alleyne and Justin Rafton. Just before halftime, flanker Tom Paton beat the right winger on the Yams own 40, turning on the after-burners to carry it to within the 22m; quick offloads to Fraser Bryant then put winger Tyrone Sio Avia away for his first of the year with UC. Jaden ‘Wally’ Wallace conversion cut just wide, keeping a 2 point advantage for Belfast.

The second half proved much the same to the first. UC was the dominant on attack but just couldn’t put it away. Belfast got lucky early and added a penalty to increase the lead to 5. Then first five substitute Jamie Newman brought it back to within 2 with a penalty of his own. The chances came and went for UC. Nga got close on a scintillating break but could not find the right option to put the final man away. The rolling maul off lineouts was working a treat, until the Yams were called back for ‘supposed obstruction’ as they were pushing the Belfast pack over the line.

The last 2 minutes were a little madness. Jamie Newman had missed back-to-back penalties from about 40metres out to attempt and give the Yams the lead. With no time remaining, the Yams took the ensuing 22-drop out and got the play deep, drawing a penalty for offiside. Jamie Newman would attempt to hit a drop goal, which pushed to the right. Coming back for the penalty, captain Jamie Verstappen wisely called for a scum. Three times, UC scrummed brilliantly bringing the entire scrum nearly over the goal line before being collapsed; still no call. Off the third, scrum Wally instructed Jamie Newman to go in the pocket and the man made no mistake the second time around, nailing the drop goal for the win.

Special mention has to go to two sets of trios. The front row of Justin Rafton, Jamie Verstappen and Kensei Kobayashi were dominant at set piece all day. The loose forward trio of Tom Paton, Torin Rensford and Fraser Bryant were workhorses on both sides of the ruck, each making some brilliant breaks during the game. Centre Joseph George-Alleyne made the hard yards up the middle.

Brett Menefy Players’ Man of the Match: Nga Selby-Rickit, an 80 minute machine for the first time this season; he dominated at lineout time and made some silky smooth runs, nearly getting over a number of times.

Prem Colts – Courtesy of Charlie Viane Sofe

With the first round coming to an end, the Rattlers needed one point to secure a spot in the top 6. Despite the struggle with numbers, the boys still turned up on the day with the right mindset and started the first half absolutely firing. The game was played accordingly to how the Rattlers wanted, spreading it from side to side and stretching the defense almost every time the outside backs had their hands on the ball. The opposition was put under a lot of pressure which led to penalties in front of the post.

However as expected, the usual happened. First five Cullen missed all of them. With the first five struggling with the boot the whole season, Kieran Hunt stepped up and took a penalty which got the boys leading by 3.The University backs backed themselves and played a move off a line out under their own goal posts which ended up in the hands of fullback Kieran Hunt who ran a 100m to score one of the best individual tries of the season. A few minutes later the blistering fullback beat 4 defenders dotting down for a second to put the Rattlers up by 13.

The momentum continued and winger Matt Janett ended up outrunning all of the opposition back line to score a magnificent try putting the rattlers up by 18 to nil at half time. The Rattlers started the second half very poor which ended up to the opposition scoring 2 tries in the first 20 minutes. The referee made some very bad calls which led to the boys being frustrated and the opposition capitalised by using their big forwards around the ruck. This led to more tries to the opposition which put them to a six point lead. More tough calls from the ref led to penalties and first five Cullen threw a tantrum so he was sent off in the bin. The ref enjoyed penalising the Rattlers and another player was carded as well. With 13 players on the field, the Rattlers showed a lot of heart in the last ten minutes to hold off the opposition to ensure they do not lead by more than 7 points on the final whistle.

The game ended in a completely different way to how it started, however the boys were happy that a spot in the top 6 was secured for the first time in a couple of years. It was a good learning experience for the boys and hopefully the top 6 playoffs will be as exciting as the first half and first five Cullen will not miss any more penalties and stop crying in the field.

Player of the Day went to Matt Janett for a very strong performance on the wing both on attack and defense.

Div 3 Tigers – Courtesy of Sef Erasito

The tigers went head to head with top of the table Christchurch coming second best 31-7. As expected we knew they were going to be a strong team and our goal was to start stronger and finish the strongest. Unfortunately we let them in towards the end with a few tries. Our solo try came off some brilliant individual running from fullback Luke Marsh.

Colts – Deferred