Defence telling as Colts go down in tough clash

Stratford New World Colts were at home to Tukapa in a top of the table clash.

Having an extra week to prepare gave a few injury niggles time to settle and the guys were amped and ready to go.

We didn't get off to a good start with a poor take from the kick off and some pretty sloppy play we let Tukapa in for an easy try under the post within the first 2 minutes.

We started to play with a bit more intensity and put some good phases together and were soon rewarded with a penalty giving Josh Perrett an easy kick for the 3. As the first half continued we threatened the line several times and received a couple of penalties which were kicked for touch or we opted for scrums but didn't turn those opportunities into any points,and having given away a penalty and Tukapa getting another converted try we went to the break 17-3 down.

The second half saw us come out with a lot more intensity and we ran in a well worked try to Shade Mackay from the kick off, converted by Josh Perrett putting us right back in the match 17-10.

Tukapa responded almost immediately with another try after some pretty sloppy tackling on our part.

The second half continued to be a good tustle with both teams trying to dominate play. We had several scoring opportunities in the second half and with a number of penalties inside the 22 some of our options were poorly executed resulting in turnovers at critical times. With defence usually one of our strong points we let ourselves down missing too many first up tackles and allowing Tukapa to run at us giving Tukapa the win 29-10.

Stand out players were Callam Sanderson, Otis Floyd and Jack Smith. We have plenty to work on this week at practice before our last pool game against Southern at Hawera 1pm, Saturday.