Second round thriller sets up big season ahead

The sun shone brightly and so did the rugby on a hard fought and entertaining second Saturday afternoon of Swindale Shield rugby. In perfect conditions across the Wellington region, there was?enough tension drama and excitement? to indicate that the 2010 club season is going to be a cracker.

Large crowds turned out to watch many of Wellington rugby's current and future stars take centre stage, such as Piri Weepu off the bench for Wainuiomata, more fireworks from Northern United duo Alapati Leiua and Buxton Popoalii, Sevens star Nigel Hunt for Tawa and Hurricanes Hosea Gear, Jeremy Thrush and Jason Kawau for Hutt Old Boys Marist and the Wests Roosters in the same match.

The run of play was tight in five of the six Swindale Shield games, including a thrilling draw between Petone and Tawa and a five-point epic between Marist St. Pat's and Poneke, ?as well as another big win for competition favourites Norths, this time against Upper Hutt. Overall 54 tries were run in and 399 points were scored across all the matches.

Just Northern United and Hutt Old Boys Marist remain unbeaten after the first two rounds, each taking second successive bonus point victories in contrasting styles.

Norths took almost a quarter of the game to warm up against Upper Hutt at Maidstone Park, but once in top gear overwhelmed the home side in an ominous 12 tries to one, 82-16 victory to retain the Terry Farrow Memorial Cup.

Norths scored their first try to lead 8-6 after about 15 minutes,? but soon exploded into gear with further tries to fullback Popoalii, second five-eighth Leuia and tighthead prop Henry Smith.

With their tails up, Popoalii (one more), Leiua (two more) and halfback Leon Ellison (two) were multiple try scorers, while winger James So'oialo kicked 22 points and scored a try.

At Ian Galloway Park, Hutt Old Boys Marist held on for a high-octane 37-29 victory over the Wests Roosters. Both teams scored five tries apiece, but it was HOBM's fast start to the match and the boot of fullback Mike Kingsbeer, who kicked 12 points as well as scoring a try, that kept them ahead. Hosea Gear also scored two tries.

The Eagles flew out of the blocks and scored three tries to take a decisive 19-0 lead, before Wests came back to score the game's next two tries. But HOBM remained in front all day and also denied Wests a second bonus point for finishing with seven points of them.

In two matches in the Eastern Suburbs involving the four city clubs, Poneke edged out Marist St. Pat's 19-14 at Evans Bay Park to retain the Horan-Millar Trophy and Oriental-Rongotai swept past Old Boys-University 38-26 at the Polo Ground.

A bumper crowd ringed Evans Bay Park for the battle of Kilbirnie that lived up to its billing as one of the toughest Wellington club rugby clashes. Each side scored just one try apiece, with Poneke right wing Volney Rouse crossing in the first half and his marker, MSP left wing Mark Le, scoring in the second.

The boot of Poneke first five-eighth Sam Rasch proved the difference, Rasch kicking three penalties, a conversion and a dropped goal for 14 points to give his side a match winning 19-6 at halftime.

Turning around in the second spell, MSP first five-eighth Fa'atonu Fili kicked a penalty and Le scored a try as Poneke held on to win.

Ories' victory over OBU was built around a quick fire three-try burst at the end of the first half and the start of the second that broke open an otherwise tightly contested match.

Former MSP and Wellington Colts halfback Sean Hay was the first to cross for Ories just before the break, followed by a second try to left winger Afa Faatau after the oranges and a third to second five-eighth Paulo Aukoso following a wipers kick across field by first five-eighth James Proctor.

At William Jones Park in Wainuiomata, the home side overpowered Johnsonville for their first win of the season, after Johnsonville came back from 10-20 behind with two tries after halftime to take a 22-20 lead.

But Wainuiomata, with the help of super-sub Weepu, piled on another 27 points and won 47-25. The Mamea brothers, fullback Tau and second five-eighth Isaiah, each scored two tries in the eight tries to three victory.

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Update Monday morning:

The following is the Club Weekly’s take on this game. Facts may differ. A Dominion Post report? highlights a ‘farcical’ end to the match, but, also believing it was a draw, the Club Weekly thought this was the reason for the flat finish.

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At the Petone Recreation Ground, fans at Petone's Old Timers' Day were treated to a match that had them on the edge of their seats throughout.

Charaterised by the strong play of Petone's under strength forwards and the constant danger of Tawa's backs, neither team could finish on top and the 33-33 result was a fair reflection of a highly entertaining match.

In a nine-try thriller, involving some wonderful attacking play on a rock hard Petone Recreation Ground, both teams were left to lament key errors that probably cost them victory.

For Petone, it was a missed penalty kick at the end by first five-eighth Ben Aoina that hit the uprights and bounced back into the field of play that would have given them a 36-33 win.

For Tawa it was two key defensive lapses by their backs amidst moments of sublime counterattacking and try scoring as well as the sinbinning of their hooker Andrew Vailini at a key point of the contest at the end of the first half that ultimately let them down.

Wellington Lions fullback Shaun Treeby, veteran left winger Junior Togia and New Zealand Sevens Star Nigel Hunt (2) all scored thrilling tries for Tawa, but two dropped balls led to Petone centre Cam Incledon dotting down twice and undoing much of their effort.

The first try saw Incledon scoop up a Tawa knock-on in the corner near their line and score with the defence caught napping. The second, in similar circumstances, saw Incledon pounce on a loose Tawa ball in midfield and scamper 40 metres untouched.

Incledon's second try early in the second half pushed Petone out to a 30-23 lead, and Aoina kicked a dropped goal from a solid build-up, but Tawa added two further converted tries to Hunt and Treeby that saw the scores locked at 33-33 with the clock fast winding down.

There was more drama towards the end too, with promising Petone lock Bradley Shields hacking ahead a loose ball to set off a frenetic two minutes of desperate attack that finally led to right wing Tau Nanai crossing the chalk. Up 33-28 at the time, a try at this stage probably would won the match for the home side. But all the while the touch judge, rightly, had his flag out for a late charge on Treeby who was chasing up a kick and chase where it all began..

Instead, play was called all the way back for a Tawa penalty, from which they couldn't immediately capatilise. But with Petone's defence holding, first five-eighth Willie Lafaele placed a stab kick through for Treeby to run on to and he scored in the equalizer in the corner.

This was Tawa's second try of the half, after scoring three in the first 40 minutes. Their second try just after halftime to standout centre Hunt was a stunning individual effort, in which he ghosted through the midfield in open play out of nowhere and then pinned his ears back on the way to the tryline.

Earlier, Hunt and Treeby had hands in Tawa's opening try of the contest in the fifth minute, Tawa's forwards driving a lineout win and the backs spinning it wide to right wing George Tisley.

Aoina kicked a penalty for Petone, early standout forward Api Sione fittingly came up with Petone's first try from a lineout drive in kind, and both kickers exchanged further penalties to give Petone an 11-8 after 25 minutes.

Tawa then stunned Petone with two long-range tries, veteran left winger Junior Togia, not lacking for gas, intercepting a Petone pass and sprinting 60 metres to score and fullback Treeby scoring a classy 50-metre solo try from broken play to make it 20-11 to Tawa.

But their good work was undone, when first Valini was sinbinned for a reckless tackle and Petone centre Incledon and openside Mateaki Kafatolu charged down a clearing kick, which led to Tawa trying to run the ball out from in front of their line, Tisley knocking on and Incledon scoring his first try.

Hunt then evened up the ledger for the first time after halftime with another penalty to make it 23-23 heading into the drama-filled final 35 minutes and Petone doing enough to retain the Bill Brien Cup.

Harper Lock Shield

Petone's Senior One team also couldn't get across the line against their Tawa counterparts in the curtain-raiser at the Petone Rec, Tawa kicking a penalty 35 metres out in front of the sticks to take a 20-18 victory on fulltime.

The winning penalty came just minutes after Petone had scored a try to take a one-point lead and seemingly the win with time on the scoreboard clock almost up.

The win for Tawa is their second to start the new Harper Lock Shield season and they and Avalon are the only unbeaten teams after two rounds.

Avalon warmed up for their social night in their clubrooms with a 29-14 win over neighbours Hutt Old Boys Marist to claim the Billy Herbert Memorial Trophy and grab their second successive bonus point win.

Defending Harper Lock Shield champions Marist St. Pat's also grabbed their first win of the new season by beating Poneke 34-20 in the curtain-raiser to the main game at Evans Bay Park.

Oriental-Rongotai earned their first win after drawing their season opener with Poneke last week, taking a narrow 38-32?victory over Old Boys-University at the Polo Ground.

Rimutaka beat Norths 15-8 in a tight tussle at Maoribank Park and Stokes Valley edged Paremata-Plimmerton 27-24 at home at Delany Park.

National Mutual Cup

Hutt Old Boys Marist, Old-Boys University and Upper Hutt are the three unbeaten teams after two rounds of the Senior 2 National Mutual Cup.

HOBM beat Petone 19-0 at the Petone Recreation Ground, Old Boys-university defeated Wellington at Hataitai Park and Upper Hutt overcame Norths by an unknown margin of victory.

In other matches, Wainuiomata whipped Paremata-Plimmerton 72-10, while Poneke made it two from three in the top grades by edging out MSP 17-16 and the Wests Roosters beat Avalon 17-12.

Fleurs Trophy

After having the first round bye last week, Ekatahuna kick-started their new Women's Premier season with a 46-10 win over Wainuiomata.

Northern United inflicted a 45-0 win over Stokes Valley to keep their opposition scoreless for the second week in a row.

Petone grabbed their second win of the year by beating Old Boys-University 34-10, while Marist St. Pat's had the bye.