Wellington Centurions U85kgs lose to North Harbour on Saturday  

The visiting North Harbour U85kg defeated the Wellington Centurions U85Kg side 18-12 at SPC artificial on Saturday in their one-off fixture.

Conditions were not great for running rugby, with the match played in driving cold rain at Evans Bay.
 
North Harbour started well and kicked two penalties in the first 15 minutes after several penalties at the breakdown, which also meant Centurions were on a warning.

Second five-eighth LA Moemai made a great break down the wing bumping off one player before running 60 metres and then being tackled over the sideline a couple of metres out.

Five minutes later the Centurions were again penalised at a ruck and No. 8 Artie Flux was shown a yellow card.

Harbour kept attacking in the 22 with a man up and a great counter ruck from Wellington saw them turn over the ball however the referee saw differently and sent hooker Bernard Dodds to the bin also which was considered a big call.
 
The Centurions then had to repeatedly defend their line with only 13 men and showed great defence to hold them out for several minutes and eventually turned it over and worked back up field.

Still down to 13 and a minute left until Flux's return, Harbour again had ball on Wellington's line and eventually were able to stretch the defence and finally take advantage of the extra two men to score out wide and make it 11-0.

Wellington finished the half well when they eventually got some possession and started to string some phases together but headed into the sheds to regroup.
 
The second half saw Harbour miss an early penalty but then Wellington started to come into the game with Harbour conceding a large number of penalties.

A counter attack from inside the Centurions 22 saw them almost go all the way but the final pass was dropped about 15 metres out in what would have been a great try.

Further pressure saw Moemai almost power his was over with a Harbour player blatantly killing the ball on the line preventing a try but Centurions only receiving a scrum.

Finally lock Bill Drummond showed great strength to borrow his way across to score and make it 5-11.

Five minutes later and more attack from Wellington in Harbour’s 22 saw first five-eighth Julius Glasson ghost through a tiny gap a few metres out and score while Moemai hit a great wide conversion in terrible conditions to set up a good finish.
 
Wellington were then unlucky with several big kicks for field position going touch-in-goal and coming all the way back to their half.

With about 10 minutes to go one of the North Harbour backs make a great run down the sideline and as cover came across he put a perfectly weighted grubber infield which the Harbour halfback just managed to dive to first ahead of the Centurions player and score a very good try.
 
Harbour were deserved winners, taking their opportunities with Wellington taking too long to get into the game (due to good pressure from Harbour) and adjust to the refereeing decisions and weather conditions.

As with the game between the sides, which Harbour won also won narrowly. last year discipline and goal kicking were key factors.
 
It was a very tough day for the backs with LA Moemai trying hard with limited chances.

The forwards had a very physical battle with several injuries, and the entire Wellington squad got a run. Bill Drummond was again huge at lock while Centurions Player of the Day was openside flanker Sam Tuala who had a big match especially on defence and was not supposed to play due to a knee injury from the previous week against Waikato (and he also played on after suffering a dislocated shoulder in the first half).

Scores:

North Harbour 18 (2 tries, 1 conversion, 2 penalties) beat Wellington Centurions 12 (Bill Drummond, Julius Glasson tries, LA Moemai 1 conversion). HT: 11-0 to North Harbour.

 The Centurions team was:

1. Sam Duncan (MSP) 
2. Bernard Dodds (Tawa) 
3. Keegan Lane (Wellington) 
4. Bill Drummond (Eastbourne) 
5.  Jack Coles (Petone) 
6. Gus Gawn (Poneke) 
7.  Sam Tuala (Tawa) 
8. Artie Flux (OBU
9. Mark Austin (Avalon) 
10. Julius Glasson (MSP) 
11. Matt Jackett (Avalon) 
12. LA Moemai (Avalon) 
13. Makea Pokere (Poneke) 
14. Damian Austin (Avalon) 
15. Dan Kubiak (Tawa) 
Reserves:        
16. Gareth Stokes (MSP) 
17. Jordan Wilson (MSP) 
18. Angus Whiteman (Wellington) 
19. Sam Gundersen (MSP) 
20. Pete Coles (Petone) 
21. Nick Naylor (MSP) 
22. Joe Perez (Petone) 
23. Todd Young (Johnsonville)