Eagles out in front in Jubilee Cup after second round thriller

Action from Porirua Park in the Senior 1 Ed Chaney Cup match between Norths and Wellington, won by the home side 30-16.?

Three close results, including a draw, and a blowout were part of this afternoon's scintillating second round set of Wellington Premier club rugby Jubilee Cup matches, played on another glorious winter's day around the region.

The sun beat down on the Hutt Old Boys Marist Eagles, who held on at home at the Hutt Recreation Ground to beat Petone 20-17 in a grandstand finish and emerge as the only unbeaten side after the opening fortnight of the championship round.

Hearts were pounding at the end as Petone's Sam McNicol lined up a penalty on fulltime that would have tied the match up. But last year's New Zealand Secondary Schools fullback missed his attempt and the Eagles swooped to their second consecutive three-point win to start their Jubilee Cup campaign.

Petone had led 10-8 at halftime on the back of a try to midfielder Nick Grigg, but the Eagles had got their noses in front in the second half with tries to left wing Chase Tiatia, his 11th of the season, and right wing Fereti Soloa.

But Petone closed to within three points, with Grigg scoring his second try, and then were left rueing a late chance to draw the match after they hammered away at the Eagles' line over the final frantic five minutes.

Across the hill at William Jones Park, home side Wainuiomata let slip a 16-0 lead at the halftime refreshments to draw 19-19 with Tawa, who arrested a run of four losses and thus kept their title defence alive.

Wainuiomata scored a key midway through the first half from a scrum on halfway when second five-eighth Marvin Karawana burst through from a scrum on halfway and scored to make it 13-0.

Tawa scored a vital try just before the break to wing Jeff Makapelu, and then centre and former Wainuiomata player Tu Umaga-Marshall intercepted a pass and raced away to score. Fullback Randall Bishop then crossed and it was 19-19, neither side able to break the deadlock from that point.

The two Jubilee Cup fixtures in town yielded contrasting results, with Old Boys University defeating Ories 17-9 in a tense battle and Marist St Pat's running through the Upper Hutt Rams to win 56-20.

Both these games will be featured on video highlights packages later tonight.

The OBU Goats and Ories were tied up at 6-6 at halftime, with both first five-eighths, James Proctor for Ories and Hamish Buick for OBU, exchanging penalties.

Buick then made a key play soon after the interval when he sliced through to score OBU's first try of the match, which he converted himself to make it 13-6.

Proctor kicked his third penalty to close the margin to 13-9 before OBU crossed for their match winner towards the end, also denying Ories a bonus point on their home patch which could be crucial in the coming weeks.

MSP christened their newly re-laid Evans Bay Park with an entertaining, if a little too loose, 56-20 victory of the Upper Hutt Rams. MSP outscored the Rams eight tries to three in a helter-skelter contest.

This was after Upper Hutt had ripped MSP clean open three times in the opening 20 minutes to lead 17-8, their inside and midfield back combinations on fire. When halfback Hayden Schrijvers completed a breakout by first five-eighth Liam Berry the Rams were in the ascendancy.

But MSP's young tight five were wrestling control and, in the blink of an eye, they flashed in for four attractive but soft long-range tries to suddenly lead 34-17. Right wing Josh Foster scored one of these and was involved in the other two.

Berry kicked a penalty to close the deficit to 20-34 early in the second spell, but first five-eighth Fa'atonu Fili stole the visitors' thunder by running almost the length of the field to dot down and make it 39-20. Three more tries followed and the Swindale Shield champions MSP had scored seven consecutive tries to win easily.

In the Hardham Cup, the Old Boys University B side went close to causing a second consecutive boilover, defeated by Johnsonville 19-17 after leading 7-5 at halftime.

Avalon and Poneke are the two unbeaten sides after two rounds, both on a maximum 10 points.

Poneke defeated newly promoted club Paremata-Plimmerton 29-17, after leading 19-3 at halftime. Wing James Solomon scored two tries.

Avalon swept to a 28-13 victory over MSP B at Kilbirnie Park, scoring five tries. Tighthead prop Shane Fawcett scored two tries.

Northern United bounced back from last week's shock defeat to OBU B to defeat Wellington 42-21 in a replay of last year's Hardham Cup final. Full match report of this match below.

In the Senior 1 Ed Chaney Cup, Poneke, Petone and Tawa are joint leaders, all three with two bonus point wins.

Poneke, who started the season in Senior 2, defeated Ories 36-7, Petone overcame HOBM 27-14 and Tawa held off Wainuiomata 27-22.

The Upper Hutt Rams also grabbed their second win in this grade, pipping the Wests Roosters 22-20 on the Roosters' Old Timers' Day at Ian Galloway Park.

Norths opened their Senior 1 account with a 30-16 win over Wellington in their Hardham Cup curtain-raiser.

The second round of HD Morgan Memorial Trophy matches saw wins for Avalon, OBU and HOBM. Avalon's second XV beat MSP's third XV 31-25, OBU beat Johnsonville 39-15 and HOBM pipped Petone 15-13.

In the first round of the John E Kelly Colts competition, first round champions OBU Green beat Norths Blue 24-10.

In other Colts Division 1 matches, Wellington beat MSP 24-12, Petone Blue spanked Ories 55-22 and HOBM Green beat OBU Black 36-3.

The MSP Blues team beat the Tawa Titans 27-10 to win the first round JC Bowl Division 1 U85 kg competition.

MSP just needed a draw or a win to make sure of their title defence, and were in the box seat when they scored two early tries to lead 14-0. The second of these two tries was off a dropped Tawa ball and a 50 metre runaway.

Errors and discipline cost Tawa, who had a man sent to the sin bin, and they trailed 7-21 late in the first half. Tawa closed the gap to 10-21 with a penalty on halftime to stay in touch, but two penalties and some spirited defence in the second half to MSP won the day for the home side.

The fourth round of Premier 1 First XV matches was completed today, after St Pat's Silverstream defeated Wellington College 24-10 on Wednesday to earn their fourth straight bonus point win.

One big result of the afternoon was Rongotai College popping HIBS' balloon and prevailing 19-12. It was Rongotai's first win and HIBS' first loss.

The other two matches today were one-sided, Scots College defeating St Bernard's College 48-5 and St Pat's Town cutting through Naenae College 69-0.

Norths back to winning ways - Jack Callender at Porirua Park

The Axemen huffed and puffed, but couldn't blow the Norths house down.

Despite a strong first 40 from Wellington, Norths ran out deserved 42-21 winners due to a strong second half.

After a successful penalty kick from Hilton Mexted in the opening 5 minutes, Norths conjured up a backline move, resulting in a try to left wing Graham Upton on starting debut.

After the Axemen infringed at the breakdown, veteran first five-eighth Rob Aloe booted a monster punt deep inside Wellington's 22. Following this, Norths won the lineout and tireless flanker Aiden Cains scored after numerous pick and goes.

Perry Hayman missed both conversions attempts, but Norths had a 12-3 lead.

Moments later, as Norths looked to be in for a certain try, Konelio Feaunati threw a shocker of a pass out wide, and in a superb read, Wellington right wing Tony Smith intercepted the ball. He would score the first try of the afternoon for the Axemen.

The first try he scored was no easy coast to the line. Smith had Norths fullback Peato Lafaele hard on his tail. But in a flash of brilliance, het showed class and composure, with a left foot step past Lafaele en route to scoring.

There was a deathly silence around the small Porirua Park crowd in attendance and the Axemen were just 2 behind when Mexted added the conversion.

However, towards the end of the first half, Hayman added a penalty. This was followed by a try to bustling centre Perofeta Silva. Silva exposed a yarning gap in the Axemen's defence and he coasted in for an easy try.

Norths took a 22-10 lead into the halftime break.

Early in the second half, both Hayman and Mexted traded penalties before winger Tony Smith scored in the left corner for his second try.

The Axemen closed the scoreline to 18-25 and it was game on.

Unfortunately for Wellington, this was about as good as it got after Mexted closed the gap to 21-30.

With 25 minutes to play, the ever reliable Perry Hayman dotted down to score the bonus point try for Norths and there was a collective sigh of relief amongst the home crowd.

Wellington's defence was ruthlessly exposed when Hayman waltzed through and against a team like Norths, first up tackles are crucial.

Moments later, the reserve hooker for Norths Luca Gibb thought he'd scored, only for the try to be denied as Norths were penalised.

Wellington lost the lineout off Hilton Mexted's punt into touch, and Norths again were hot on attack.

After quick hands from the skilful Norths backs, Gibb was not to be denied again as he got a deserved try with 7 to go.

Despite being down 21-35, the Axemen never threw in the towel and were brave on defence. Tony Smith, the standout player for Wellington tackled the hard running reserve centre AJ Va'alepu into touch, something that isn't easy to do.

Norths were quite content to let the big men have a rumble close to the Wellington line with 5 minutes to play. After more than 10 phases, reserve centre AJ Va'alepu barged over to score the final try of the afternoon for the home side.

Wellington played with heart and scored a couple of good tries. They were competitive and well in the contest until the last quarter where their defence was breached too easily through the backline rushing up too quickly. This created huge gaps for the Norths backs to run through. The pleasing thing was that the Axemen never threw in the towel and I am sure that a few teams will be ‘axed around the neck' during the Hardham Cup.

For Norths, they really needed to win this one today. Coming off a 24-25 loss to OBU B last week, another loss today would have put their Hardham Cup campaign in jeopardy. Although there was the odd penalty conceded and tries butchered through support being ignored aka greed, Norths were good enough on both attack and defence and got the job done, securing 5 points to move up to 3^rd on the ladder.

Norths player of the match Perry Hayman had a haul of 17 points in the contest and he caused havoc out on the right wing side.

Next Saturday, Norths take on MSP B at Kilbirnie Park at an early time of 1:15pm.

Wellington return to Hataitai Park where they face a tough encounter against 2^nd placed Poneke.