Convincing wins for Wellington Pride and U19s; U18s miss out to Auckland

Above: Welligton U18s hooker Sitiveni Paongo attempts to break through Auckland's defence in their match at Porirua Park today. Wellington lost this match, but their Women's and U19s team both won well.

Timena Tuma'ai, Georgia Daals and Malo Tuitama scored 10 tries between them for the Wellington Pride and Wellington U19s teams in their wins today.

The Wellington Pride will host a Women’s NPC semi-final next week after finishing the round-robin with a flourish today and beating the Bay of Plenty Volcanix in Tauranga.

The Pride earned a 69-5 bonus point win over BoP to leapfrog Waikato into second place on the points table, after Waikato missed out to Counties-Manukau 10-23 in their final round fixture on Friday night.

The Wellington Pride will host Counties Manukau next weekend in one Women’s NPC semi-final and the top qualifier Auckland will meet Waikato in the other.

In cloudy, humid conditions, the Pride and the Volcanix fought out an even opening 20 minutes, before the Pride broke through to score the first of their four converted first half tries. Wellington led 28-5 at halftime.

The fourth try just before the interval secured them their bonus point and one competition required to clinch second place on the table. This spurred them into a confident burst of second half scoring and they won convincingly at the end.

Individually, right wing Timena Tuma'ai and fleet-of-foot centre Georgia Daals both scored hat-tricks, while left wing Ayesha Leti-l’iga crossed for a brace. Other tries were scored by fullback Vaine Marsters and forwards Joanah Ngan-Woo and Sanita Levave. Flyhalf Georgia Daals kicked seven conversions.

In Taupo, the Wellington U19s got up to finish fifth in their Premiership Plate final in the Jock Hobbs Memorial National U19 tournament.

Last year’s New Zealand Schools left wing Malo Tuitama, recently returned from a long-term Achilles injury, scored four tries in the 38-11 win over North Harbour.

Tuitama scored two of his tries, and hooker Josh Houston-Tupou scored the other in the first half as Wellington led 19-8 at halftime.

In the second half, Tuitama scored two more tries and fullback Josh Robertson-Weepu kicked three penalties to double Wellington’s score to the fulltime score of 38.

The Wellington U18s have suffered their first loss of the season, overpowered by the Auckland U18s at Porirua Park.

Auckland burst to a 28-3 lead at halftime.

Wellington started in an encouraging fashion when they attacked inside the Auckland 22 and first-five Tynan Barrett missed a penalty attempt.

Gradually a much bigger Auckland team started to dominate the collisions and bust the Wellington defence at will.

No. 8 Lona Halaholo was in rampant form. He scored two tries, drew in defenders and offloaded frequently to cause alarm for Wellington.

Centre Loketi Manu was equally imposing. He scored Auckland's third try when he pierced Wellington's midfield on halfway and strode away.

Auckland's dominance at scrum time resulted in two tries from an 8-9 play. Halfback Harry Saker strolled over in the first-half to make it 21-3 and then wing Freedom Vaha'akolo benefited from swift work midway through the second.

Other standouts for Auckland included blindside Hoskins Sotutu (despite being sinbinned late in the match), second five-eighth Chris Lua'a and lock Ben Sa'u.

Wellington defended stubbornly in the second-half and enjoyed long periods in possession.

Their toil was awarded when hard-working reserve prop Ivan Fepuleai wrestled over.

Wellington's best were openside Jimmy Hewitt and Alex Ropeti added some spark from the bench.

The Wellington Development (against Tasman in Picton) and the Wellington Lions (against BoP in Tauranga) teams play tomorrow.

Results 3 October:

Wellington Pride 69 (Timena Tuma'ai 3, Georgia Daals 3, Ayesha Leti-l’iga 2, Vaine Marsters, Sanita Levave, Joanah Ngan-Woo tries; Lizzie Goulden 7 con) beat Bay of Plenty Volcanix 5 (try scorer TBC). HT: 28-5.

Wellington U19s 38 (Malo Tuitama 4, Josh Houston-Tupou tries; Josh Robertson Weepu 3 pen, 2 con) beat North Harbour U19s 11 (try scorers TBC). HT: 19-8.

Auckland U18s  40 (Freedom Vaha'akolo 2, Lona Halaholo 2, Loketi Manu, Henry Saker tries; Matthew Storm 5 con) beat Wellington U18s 10 (Ivan Fepuleai try; Tynan Barrett 1 con, Alex Ropeti 1 con). HT: 28-3.