St Pat’s Silverstream beat St Pat’s Town in annual midweek Traditional

Above: Mum's the word as Silverstream second five-eighth Losi Filipo crashes over to score his side's fourth and bonus point try this afternoon against St Pat's Town.

St Pat’s Silverstream brought the curtain down on the 2015 WelTec Premiership round-robin series by overcoming rivals St Pat’s Town 30-15 at home this afternoon.

Silverstream will join top qualifier Scots College on the sidelines this coming Saturday in the opening weekend of First XV playoff rugby. Both will host home semi-finals the following weekend.

St Pat’s Town have finished third and they will host sixth placed Wairarapa College in the quarterfinal knockout round on Saturday.

Fourth placed Rongotai College will play fifth placed finisher Wellington College in the other, a match that was determined before the recent school holidays. The final game on Saturday between Tawa College and Hutt International Boys’ School will determine rankings for next season’s grading pools.

St Pat’s Silverstream won their 83rd fixture 30-15, to extend their winning run in this fixture to five years in a row.

St Pat’s Town opened the match strongly when Silverstream fumbled the kick-of and Town applied pressure inside the Silverstream half and centre Billy Proctor kicked a penalty to make it 3-0.

Town employed a direct attacking approach, with lots of one-of runners to muscle their way into the Silverstream half and they were rewarded with the try to lock John Tuia after he ran 25 metres to score untouched after a ruck turnover. This made it 8-0 to Town.

Silverstream got on the board through a penalty to fullback Todd Svenson, before hooker and Man of the Match Asafo Amua burst through 60 metres to school their opening try of the contest, beating three defenders and scoring under the posts to put the home side ahead 10-8.

Town started the second half brightly, pinning Silverstream on defence for a long period. But Silverstream withstood the pressure and their halfback Ryan Fraser scored a 75-metre intercept try. Svenson added the extras to put them ahead 17-8.

Town had a had another period on attack and their wing Saia Paese was tackled in the corner in a try saving tackle by Svenson.

But from the lineout, Town won the ball their captain and openside flanker Jack Nelson-Murray  scored and Proctor converted to make it 17-15.

At which point the game was in the balance, until standout player Aumua scored his second try to extend the lead to 22-15. Aumua’s second try was from a maul, after lock Jack Wright won the ball cleanly and the hooker muscled over the chalk.

Second five-eighth Losi Filipo dominated the lastf five minutes, kicking a 40 metre penalty to make it 25-13 and then scoring a 20 metre try close to fulltime to win the game for Silverstream.

Standouts for Silverstream were Aumua, No. 8 Josh Brown and lock Aisea Mafileo. For Town, No. 8 Hannon Brighouse, skipper Nelson-Murray, tighthead prop Ben Amua-Peseta worked hard and right wing Paese had his moments on attack.

The win for Silverstream extends their head-to-head record in this contest to 60 wins, with Town having won 18 and five draws.

In a match played on Tuesday between old boys of the two colleges, Silverstream Old Boys defeated Town Old Boys 10-7.

Scores: St Pat’s Silverstream 30 (Asafo Aumua 2, Ryan Fraser, Losi Filipo tries; Todd Svenson pen, 2 con, Filipo pen) beat St Pat’s Town 15 (John Tuia, Jack Nelson-Murray  tries; Billy Proctor pen, con) HT: 10-8