Club and college round-up 22 August

Above: The Bishop Viard College First XV celebrating their Premier 2 college win today over St Bernard’s College, winning 27-24. Wainuiomata High School beat Newlands College 20-10 to claim the Premier 3 title.

In a repeat of the Wellington WelTec Premiership final a fortnight ago, local champions St Pat’s Town and Scots College will clash in the Hurricanes region First XV final next Saturday (venue TBC).

In today's Hurricanes region semi-finals, St Pat’s Town beat Hastings Boys' High School 20-13, and Scots and Gisborne Boys’ High School drew 33-all. Scots progressed by scoring more tries in the match.

Loose forward trio set platform for St Patrick’s semi-final victory

St. Patrick’s College, Wellington booked their place in the 2015 Hurricanes 1XV Final, with a come from behind win over Hastings Boys’ High School at Evans Bay Park on Saturday afternoon, 20-13, with two crucial scores immediately before the end of each half.

For Hastings Boys’, there was a palpable sense of déjà vu, with the team losing the same match last year against Palmerston North Boys’ High School, by a penalty goal.

Fast forward one year, the hosts were trailing by one point (12-13) with 10 minutes to play, however a penalty goal by Zac Donaldson put St. Patrick’s back in front of the visitors from Hawkes Bay. A late try to blind-side flanker Kevin Fauatea put the result beyond doubt.

St. Patrick’s started the game with a flourish.. From the kick-off, St. Patrick’s forward pack swarmed Hastings Boy’s defence, winning a turn-over followed by a succession of one-off carries around the ruck, allowing Captain Jack Nelson-Murray to score the first unconverted try of the day, after 180 seconds of play.

Four minutes later, Nelson-Murray’s opposing Captain and Centre, Antonio Mikaele-Tuu broke cleanly through the blue line of mid-field defence to score a forty metre try which was also unconverted. Had the score remain unchanged for the remainder of the game, this would have been enough for St. Patrick’s to progress to next week’s Final, however there was still plenty of rugby to be played.

On the stroke of half-time, Xavier (Sefo) Numia, a former sprinter now playing at Prop for the blue team, surged over the try-line for St. Patrick’s second try, converted by Donaldson taking the half-time score to 12-5.

Hastings Boys’ started the second-half with vigour and were rewarded with an early penalty goal to Half-Back Buster Keefe (the cousin of one of Hawkes’ Bay’s favourite rugby sons, Ihaia West). With only four points the difference, 2014 New Zealand Barbarian and 2015 Hurricanes Under 18 player, Marino Mikaele-Tuu, playing at No. 8, started to link with the mid-field to punch repeated holes in St. Patrick’s defensive line.

One burst and off-load put Winger Ibanez King-Edwards over in the left-hand corner giving Hastings Boys’ the lead for the first time in the game, after 45 minutes, 13 points to 12. There was plenty of drama to come.

With Hastings Boys’ mid-field combination now starting to work more efficiently, it was only a matter of minutes before King-Edwards seemed to have scored again and put the game beyond doubt. Having signalled the try, to take the score to 18-12, the Assistant Referee advised the Referee of an obstruction leading up to the try, so it was disallowed, with the relieving penalty putting St. Patrick’s back on attack inside Hastings Boys’ half.

Untidy play by St. Patrick’s defence allowed Hastings Boys’ to swing back onto attack once more, with this time Right Wing Thomas Agnew knocking the ball on in the movement to score a try in the opposite corner. And that was as close as Hastings Boys’ came to winning the match.

A penalty goal to St. Patrick’s Donaldson with five minutes to play provided some breathing space as the hosts re-took the lead, 15-12. But then loose ball was toed ahead by Kevin Fauatea, 40 metres out from Hastings Boys’ try-line. Fauatea re-gathered the bouncing ball and sprinted the remaining 30 metres to secure St. Patrick’s position in next week’s Final.

For the visitors, both Mikaele-Tuu twins were prominent in Hastings Boys’ attack, with Viliami Kaipouli a tower in securing line-out ball. For the victors, the loose-forward trio of Hannon Brighouse, Kevin Fauatea and Jack Nelson-Murray established the platform for the win, with the Poasa twins (Peteli and Penieli) both prominent in broken play.

St. Patrick’s will now face Scots College in a re-match of the Weltec Premiership Final for a place in New Zealand’s Top 4, next weekend, in Wellington.

St. Patrick’s College, 20  (Tries: Jack Nelson Murray, Sefo Numia, Kevin Fauatea. Zac Donaldson, 1P, 1C beat Hastings Boys’ High School, 13 (Tries: Mikaele Tuu, Ibanez King-Edwards. Buster Keefe, 1P.

Full match commentary will be available on soundcloud.com on Monday. Search HYRC SEMI.

Finalists found in club rugby competitions

First round winners the Tawa Titans will play the Poneke Cav’s in the U85kg Division 1 final next weekend, OBU and the Petone Saxons will meet in the final of the Johnsonville Centennium Cup and the Poneke Ruffnuts will clash with the Johnsonville Cripples in the final of the Reserve Grade competition.

Results from today’s club semi-finals:

Paul Potiki Memorial Shield (Under 85kg Div 1) – Tawa 43-OBU Onslow Bunnies 12; Poneke 23-Wellington 15

Johnsonville Centennium Cup (First Grade) –Petone Saxons 16- Hutt Old Boys Marist 15; Old Boys University 35-Stokes Valley 10

Reserve Grade Div 1–  Poneke Ruffnuts 2 3 - Marist St Pat’s Internationals 14; Johnsonville Cripples 27 - Western Suburbs Mixed Veges 25

All four teams have had a win each after two rounds of the Festival of Rugby:

Wellington Maori beat Wellington City 36-31
Wellington Samoan beat Wellington Suburbs 26-24

Also, the Wellington Pride beat Wellington Samoan Women 110-0 in a Women’s NPC pre-season match.