League: Mighty Colts push Vipers aside

The Waicoa Bay Colts have backed up their historic win over Akarana Falcons last week, with a 42-24 drubbing of Central Vipers in round five of the NZRL national under-17 competition.

Playing in front of a small but vocal Puketawhero Park crowd, the Colts put on an impressive 40-minute first half display to lead 28-0 at the break. Despite a late second half surge by Central, , the Colts never looked like relinquishing their lead.

The Moehewa Armstrong-coached Colts side ran in five tries to none in the first half, using flair, speed and a clever game plan. Waicoa Bay looked to attack the fringes of Central's ruck, not giving their bigger opponents time to breath. Combine this with Colts' fullback Pryor Collier's left foot step and you had a Central defensive line in disarray.

The first try came at the 10-minute mark, when Colts' left winger Sean McGregor with the help of two of his team-mates, drove his opponent out of touch while he was trying to run it out from his 22m.

From the pursuing scrum the Colts ran it right for two plays before standoff Liam Prendergast called it left and fired a wide pass out to Brennan Ketu, who drew and passed out to McGregor who scampered to the corner. Halfback Ayden Inglis converted. The youngster would convert five from eight for the match.

Waicoa Bay were in again three minutes later when Collier charged on to a ball kicked by Central behind the home side's defensive line. The classy fullback picked it up at pace, stepped the kick chaser, ran around another defender to pass to Devon Toa. The right winger beat his man and passed inside to his centre Ahurei Winitana. who offloaded to Toa who ran infield to find a charging Brennan Ketu. He finished the move off with a 20m run under the post.

The home side ran in three more tries before the half ended to Parahi Wilson, Isaiah Cooper-Tetevano and Tiki Harawira but the visitors never looked like threatening the Colts' try line, despite some big hits by Central prop Paul Faga.

Straight after the break Wilson scored his second but Central fired back when halfback Jeneiro Smallman managed to score and convert the first of his side's four tries 10 minutes into the second spell. The youngster converted all four of his team's tries.

However, the Colts would score two more tries to Devon Toa and Mac Carson, before Central's late 15-minute rally, scoring three tries to Paul Faga, Liam Parker and Morehu Tamati-Knuckey.

The home side will take on Wellington Orcas next weekend in the capital. In the other three matches played at Puketawhero Park, the under-15 Colts lost to Central Vipers 24-20 and the Stallions won 42-12.