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RUGBY
Unlucky is not the right word.
Yesterday the Gisborne Boys’ High School under-14s struck a very good Hamilton Boys’ High School team on Day 2 of the Colquhoun Invitation Tournament and lost 29-0.
“Gisborne threw the kitchen sink at us from the start, but it was the best game of the year by our boys — the all-round performance we’ve been looking for,” Hamilton coach Murray McKenzie said.
“We lost our tighthead prop Josh Hazelton to the sin-bin for five minutes for a clumsy tackle in the first half.
“Both teams showed high levels of skill in coping with a fair breeze in the first half.”
Right wing Manaia Williams scored the opening try, which was converted by first five-eighth Payton Spencer.
Hazelton made a strong return to active duty with a try, and Spencer’s conversion made the halftime score 14-0.
Spencer then kicked a penalty goal but soon after was unable to convert openside flanker Wiremu Flavell’s try; it was 22-0 then. Reserve halfback Josh Blaikie scored and converted his own try to finish the game.
Gisborne Boys’ High head coach Duane Hihi acknowledged a strong performance by Hamilton.
“They’re a very physical team, and they played well.”
On Monday morning, the Gisborne Boys’ High u14s beat Palmerston North Boys’ High 28-5 in Game 1 at the Colquhoun tournament but lost 19-10 to New Plymouth Boys’ High that afternoon.
“As a team we tend to start slowly, and we can’t afford to do that when games are only 40 minutes long,” Hihi said.
“We’ve scored some great tries from set piece; we’re creating a lot of opportunities to get over the line but we just need to finish more of those off.”
Palmerston North left wing Kees Jahnke scored in the fourth minute of play but from that point on — as his coach Shaun McFarlane put it — “it was one-way traffic”.
No.8 Uetaha Wanoa came hard off the back of a Gisborne scrum set five metres out from the Palmerston North goal-line to score his team’s opening try, converted by captain and fullback King Maxwell for 7-5.
Right wing Hikurangi Reid then finished off a Gisborne counter-attack, Maxwell converting Reid’s try for a halftime score of 14-5.
Gisborne openside flanker Ben Phelps then proved as hard to stop from five metres out as Wanoa had been. Phelps scored and Maxwell converted for 21-5.
Reserve left wing Izaiah Fox scored the last try of the match, and Maxwell converted for 28-5.
In Game 2, against New Plymouth, Gisborne went to the break 5-0 up, thanks to a try to hooker Riley Kururangi.
New Plymouth first-five and captain Cullum Tito next kicked a penalty and converted lock Reeve Wilson’s try to give his side a 10-5 lead. Tito then kicked three penalties for 19-5 before Gisborne lock Dylan Bronlund had the last word with an excellent try.
“We were poor in the first half and Gisborne came out firing,” New Plymouth coach Blair Corlett said.
“They were very good over the ball, ran strongly and kicked to corners with the wind.
“We gave our boys a stern talking-to at halftime — good tactical kicking by halfback Topia Barrowcliffe and Tito helped to settle us down from the break.”
Tito was also candid: “The Gisborne game was tough — a challenge — because they used the wind well and scored in the first half. In the second half, we had the wind; we needed to take our chances, and we did. That’s how we won.”