Boys' High secure impressive Super 8 win

Rotorua Boys' High 1st XV player Hayze Perham and his side continue their running streak in the Super 8 rugby competition

Rotorua Boys' High School 1st XV had an impressive victory played in difficult conditions in the third round of the Super 8 competition.

The national champions beat Hamilton Boys' High 1st XV 25-18 at home on Saturday, after leading with a slim 10-8 advantage at half-time.

With the conditions being less than desirable both teams were left to fight for field position through tactical kicking deep within their own halves and relied on powerful forward play to make metres in close contact situations.

Rotorua Boys' slid over for a total of three tries with two conversions and two penalties and were able to redeem themselves after a defeat against Hamilton Boys' in the competition final last year.

Manager Bruce Buckton was pleased with the performance and said the forward pack excelled for the team.

"In was a strong performance in difficult conditions. Our backline weren't able to function as well as they do usually though," he said.

"It was a very fiercely contested game in all areas but came down to who had the stronger more solid forward pack.

"Hamilton could have come back right at the end of the game but our defence stayed strong which was very impressive to watch.

"We can take a lot of confidence going forward from this because we made very few errors in poor conditions."

Electrifying back, Hayze Perham, opened the scoring early in the game for Rotorua Boys' when he was rewarded after a quick chase from an opportunist bounce of the ball with Kaleb Trask converting.

Hamilton then received a penalty that was successfully kicked by captain Rameka Poihipi to make the score 7-3 after 15 minutes.

The scoreline remained this way until the final few minutes of the half when Trask kicked another penalty and Hamilton scored a minute later through Kieran Lee to end the half 10-8 to Rotorua Boys'.

The home side extended their lead five minutes after the restart through another successful Trask penalty.

Rotorua Boys' fullback, Reuben Te Kanii-Taylor then scored shortly after thanks to No.8 Viliami Tosi's cleverly flicked ball to make the score 18-11.

With 10 minutes to go Rotorua Boys' put the game out of reach after Perham broke through the opposition's defensive line, offloaded to Trask to score and convert his own try.

Hamilton Boys' worked together well in the last phases of match to score a well constructed try by Poihipi closing the gap to 25-18, but it was too little, too late.

There are now four more rounds left in the competition with the two top teams playing off for the Super 8 Shield on August 13th.

And Rotorua Boys' are currently in the best possible position to reach the final thanks to their third win in a row.

But they must face the top ranked team Hastings Boys' High School 1st XV at home next weekend.

"Hasting's form has been outstanding this season and in this competition anything can happen on the day," said Buckton.

"We just have to take the momentum from the last couple of games and use it to our advantage. We certainly want to get our hands on the trophy again."