Wellington Pride put the Heat on; wins to Wellington U19s, Development and U18 teams

Above: The Wellington U19s with the Central Region Shield today after beating the Manawatu U19s today 19-7 at Porirua Park. The Wellington U19s will meet the second placed Chiefs qualifier in their first match of the National tournament in Taupo next week, while Manawatu will play the top ranked Chiefs team. Hawke’s Bay U19s beat the Hurricanes Barbarians U19s 39-3 in the other match today.

There were wins for most of Wellington’s representative teams today, including a convincing 27-12 win for the Wellington Pride in the Women’s NPC over Counties Manukau, a 36-11 win for the Wellington U18s over the Wairarapa-Bush U18s and victories for the Wellington U19s and Wellington Development teams over Manawatu opposition at Porirua Park.

In other results, the Wellington Samoans U18s beat Wanganui U18 50-3, the Wellington U16 Development team beat Horowhenua Kapiti 23-5, the Wellington Centurions U21s lost to Horowhenua Kapiti 36-43 and the Wellington Samoans missed out 7-46 to the Hawke’s Bay Saracens side in Napier.

In a one-off U85kg representative fixture in Taupo, the Centurions U85kg team beat the Waikato U85kgs 27-10 to claim the Gallon Cup. The Wellington team plays another match next weekend at home against North Harbour U85kgs, who lost 10-16 to the Auckland side today.

In another Hurricanes U18 result today, Horowhenua Kapiti defeated East Coast U18 24-12. 

The Wellington Maori side is taking on Tasman Maori in Blenheim on Sunday.

Wellington U19s 19 - Manawatu U19s 7

Wellington 19 (Josh Robertson-Weepu try, con, 4 pens) beat Manawatu 7 (Matt Maoate try, con). HT: 7-7.

Radio commentary on soundcloud.com, search on HURRICANES U19 FINAL

The Wellington U19s won the Hurricanes U19 tournament, seeing out a resilient Manawatu outfit today at Porirua Park.

With a strong wind at their back, Manawatu started off the game with the upper-hand. Much of the rugby was being played in Wellington’s territory but to no real avail for Manawatu, failing to register any points for their time in Wellington’s half.

Wellington dug their way out of their half through a blindside run from halfback Kaide McCashin which ended in the Manawatu 22-metre where the Wellington forwards began to attack Manawatu’s line. After a few phases Wellington won a penalty and fullback Josh Robertson-Weepu caught the junior Turbos napping, dotting down untouched after a quick tap.

The Wellington try was somewhat out against the run of play and Manawatu duly responded, answering with a try of their own shortly after through mammoth first five-eighth Matt Maoate. From turnover ball, halfback Temm Kauri drew in a number of defenders with a horizontal scoot and put Maoate into a hole with a delightful flat ball to see Manawatu’s first try, evening up the score 7-7 at half time.

The second 35 minutes was as scrappy as the first, with knock-ons and infringements aplenty.
With the wind advantage, Wellington saw much more time in the Manawatu half than they did in the first stanza. Though Manawatu held out Wellington from scoring any further tries, the home team were able to put 12 second half points on the board thanks to the reliable boot of Robertson-Weepu, with four penalty goals which sealed the win for Wellington.

Robertson-Weepu’s flawless kicking played a huge role in the winning of the game for Wellington, as did the locking duo of Bradd Forster and Anthony Pettett with their dominance of the lineout. For Manawatu, blindside flanker Ollie Brosnahan and substitute Simon Goss worked hard around the field.

Wellington won the Central Region Shield (as Hurricanes U19 Champions) for the 12th time, since 1984. Hawkes Bay have won the Shield 15 times, Manawatu twice and Taranaki three times.

The Shield was donated by Hawke’s Bay Rugby Legend, Peter Loomes, who died last year.Loomes coached 13 Hurricanes teams at the U16 and U18 level to Championship titles, before becoming a Hurricanes age-group selector. He was also a member of the Hawke’s Bay Rugby Referees Association.

Wellington Development 18 - Manawatu Development 6

Wellington Development 18 (Paddy Hughes, Ben Teariki-Nicholas tries; Jordan Simpson-Hefft con, 2 pens) beat Manawatu Development 6 (Sam Malcom 2 pens). HT: 6-5 Manawatu.

Rallying from a one-point half-time deficit, Wellington Development have gone on to beat Manawatu 18-6 in a messy encounter at Porirua Park.

Played in atrocious conditions, both sides blundered several attacking opportunities and were plagued with inaccuracies, perhaps best highlighted by the build-up to the opening try.

Wellington were awarded penalty five-metres out, near the right sideline and opted to kick to touch for a lineout. That kick somehow went dead in goal. The ensuing 22-metre drop out went out on the full, resulting in a scrum to Wellington. Things were eventually tidied up and the ball was spread through the hands to right wing Paddy Hughes who scored Wellington’s first five-pointer.

Penalty goals to Manawatu first five-eighth Sam Malcom on either side of the Hughes try saw the two sides head into the break with Manawatu up 6-5. 

With the wind in their favour, Wellington began to build pressure on the visitors in the second half. After spending the most part of the opening 10 minutes of the half in Manawatu’s 22-metre, Wellington finally got the men in green to crack, pushing a scrum over the try line for an easy try to No. 8 Teariki Ben-Nicholas.

Wellington controlled most of the remainder of the game and secured the victory with a couple of penalty goals, courtesy of Fa’atonu Fili, who played with his trademark flair and flashiness.

Wellington’s loose forwards; Mateaki Kafatolu; Sam Gard’ner; Teariki Ben-Nicholas and substitute Isaac O’Connor were constant threats at the breakdown. Manawatu blindside flanker and captain Doug Juszcyk ran the ball well and made some big plays defensively.

Wellington Pride 27 – Counties Manukau Heat 12

Wellington Pride 27 (Vaine Marsters, Noleen Nonu, Georgia Daals, Ayesha Leti-L’iga tries; Lizzie Goulden 2 con, pen) beat Counties Manukau Heat 12 (Renee Wickliffe, Hinewai Pomare tries; Arihiana Marino con). HT: 17-7.

The Wellington Pride overcame the massive disruption of losing two players through injury early on and a subsequent long delay in play and a change in playing fields to power past the Counties Manukau Heat 27-12 at the Petone Recreation Ground.

The Wellington Pride earned a bonus point win over the Counties Manukau Heat to leapfrog them into third on the Women’s NPC points table behind last year’s two finalists, Auckland and Waikato.

The Pride tore into their work from the get-go, but lost captain and in-form mid-fielder Amanda Rasch to injury. The game was then put on hold for approximately 30 minutes when lock Petra Kriklanova sustained a serious knee injury after taking the ball into contact.

The match was moved over to the adjacent field and the Pride set about dominating a lacklustre Heat side, particularly at scrum time, and also around the fringes of the rucks and in their inside back defence where Counties Manukau looked most threatening.

Playing into the teeth of a strong southerly, the Pride capitalised on early Counties Manukau errors to score the game’s first two tries, to fullback Vaine Marsters and prop Noleen Nonu, and take a 12-0 lead.

The Heat re-grouped, and after a series of penalties inside the 22, took a quick tap and their prop Hinewai Pomare roared through to score to make it 12-7 to Wellington.

But their openside flanker Sharnita Woodman was then sent to the sin-bin and the Pride took advantage by scoring their third try out wide, to centre Geogia Daals, taking a 17-7 into halftime.

With rain now falling, the scoreboard operator had enough at halftime and packed up and went home.

The Pride went close to scoring again after halftime, but the visitors held on and got themselves back into the game. Eventually, the Heat crossed to score their second try to close the score up to 12-17.

That was as close as they got, with the Pride sealing victory with about 10 minutes to go and scoring their bonus point try with a popular try to left wing Ayesha Leti-L’iga, who came into the backline from first phase play off another rock-solid scrum and slashed through the midfield off the shoulder of Daals who drew the defence and popped a lovely pass.

First five-eighth Lizzie Goulden kicked the conversion and then added a penalty to put the game out of reach for Counties Manukau.

The Pride have two round-robin games remaining, at home next week against Canterbury and then away to Bay of Plenty in a fortnight.