Aotea captain and No8 Tobias Allison was the toast of his Dannevirke-based club on Saturday night.
The former Hawke's Bay age group representative and Napier Technical premier frontrower scored a 100th minute try to secure Aotea a berth in this Saturday's promotion-relegation game against Tamatea at Bill Mathewson Park, Hastings. Twenty minutes of extra time was required in the Northfuels Arthur Bowman Cup division two final against Otane which Aotea won 18-14 at Dannevirke's Rugby Park after the score was 11-all at the end of regulation time.
"I'm still struggling to believe it ... Otane go unbeaten all season until the final two weeks of the comp and we beat them two weeks in a row," an elated Aotea coach Ken Todd said yesterday referring to the fact his troops had beaten Otane 27-13 the previous week to secure home advantage for the weekend's final. "It's going to be a big ask against Tamatea but we will give it a good go ... from what I hear we won't be short of supporters," Todd said.
He was full of praise for 40-year-old prop Brent Withey who played all 100 minutes. Along with Allison, blindside flanker JJ Carberry, first five-eighth Mitch Nation and former Magpies fullback Jearrad Stephenson were all prominent for Aotea.
Captain and prop Hayden Rapana, openside flanker Mike Singer and fullback Matt Hill were Otane's best.