Battle of Northern tribes a highlight of rally day

Mangonui senior club rugby kicked off on Saturday in fine autumn conditions, and in traditional fashion with all four games being played at Arnold Rae Park.

Naturally all attention was on how defending champions Awanui would perform and they did not disappoint - on certain levels - by annihilating last year's finalists Eastern; and suggesting they were even stronger than last year and on another level altogether to the other seven teams. With Kaitaia posting a walk-over win over Ngaru Roa and Motukohu defaulting to Te Rarawa, it was left to the Northern tribes to put on the match of the day on the back field.

Results from Rally Day were as follows, 'home teams' first.

Ngati Kuri 17 Te Aupouri 5: "Go Eric!" was the battle cry from the Ngati Kuri supporters whenever No 6 Eric Abraham got the ball and began another cannonballing run into the Aupouri lines. Of the four games on rally day this was by far the most competitive as players from both teams threw themselves enthusiastically into the fray in a worthy battle of the tradition created between the two northernmost tribes.

In the end, however, it was the green machine of Ngati Kuri who walked away with the three trophies up for grabs on the day, the Latimer Brown Cup, along with the Tattersall Memorial and Bob Subritzky Memorial trophies. Ngati Kuri manager Jaclyn Masters said the team went into this game with high hopes and produced a first and "much deserved" win as well as holding considerable emotional resonance.

"We are dedicating this season to one of our players who we lost over Christmas, Sandy Brown. This is one of our reasons to play hard to commit to our club, supporters, whanau and iwi and Sandy's whanau in particular. Today was a very special moment for the club as a whole. Words can't express how proud we are. Our boys' work ethic on the field can only get better as the season goes on.

"We have had awesome turnouts at our trainings. The urgency is there now, all we need to do is produce the outcome we all want. We are the underdogs and always have been," said Masters defiantly. Ngati Kuri standouts on Saturday were Eric Abraham and Tomo Murray who were impact players in every sense of the phrase, with the former scoring two tries, the latter one and Stu Jobe converting one.

She also praised the opposition: "Aupouri played hard led by Richie Oneroa and his son Joe who always give it to us."

Kaitaia 61 Ngaru Roa 7: Kaitaia dispatching Ngaru Roa with surprising ease, although it appears a number of key players were not available for the Hokianga team's opening match. Kaitaia coach Joe Pomare was both pleased with the result but also a bit surprised the margin posted over their western rivals.

"Kept our structure, [and] how we have been training," he said, noting standouts included loosies Will Henry and Tai Dromgool, openside Johnny Matthews, prop Shane Nightingale who scored a nice try along with Turangi Mundane. Also mentioned were halfback Jordan Karena, first-five Shane Vinac and, "Good to have all the older guys back."

Eastern 10 Awanui 67 (ht 10-24): The floodgates opened in the second half in a match where the Mangonui champions unveiled even more fresh Fijian firepower in the form of winger Filipe Nakosi who showed electric pace in scoring four tries. While Awanui superiority was so defined it was nearly criminal, stalwart Glen Subritzky reminded his players have been training four to five times a week for the past four to five months. Apparently, even Nakosi - who, one imagines, will be shoe-in for the Taniwha - was surprised at the fitness shown by his teammates.

Standouts were too many to name, particularly in the notoriously devastating backline and to single out players there would be to do disservice to Mangonui's best forward pack, again led by No 8 and captain Murray Blithe, and featuring young prop Devron Phillips from last year's Northland under-19 Milers unit.

Eastern will be glad to have got this one out of the way.

Coach Mike Jurlina said the boys had been working a bit harder and were better organised than usual after playing two preseason games.

"But the final scoreline was a reality check. They [Awanui] just had too many fit and fast quality players and equally good ones off the bench. They might even be better than last year. Them aside, I saw some real positives for us, an inspirational new leader in Hemi Paraha, plus a core group of younger players who are great to coach and will get better with each game and more experience."

Te Rarawa beat Motukohu by default: Only able to produce 10 players on the day, a default win was awarded to Rarawa before the two sides still played each other in a friendly, with Motukohu lent some players; Rarawa eventually winning 20-10 if that mattered.

The draw for this Saturday features nearby.