On Tuesday evening, July 21, the Stratford Eltham Colts played against Coastal.
Streltham took the game straight to the league leaders, scoring two unconverted tries, which went without reply until just before the break. At 10-7 up into the second half, Coastal showed why they were at the top of the table running in another two converted tries.
Streltham entered the next phase of dogged determination, with an interception on the 22 metre line to run in a much needed reply. A successful penalty following brought the lads right back into contention.
The team entered the last 10 minutes 20-19 down. The end game resulted with Streltham being awarded a penalty 30 metres out and 10 metres in from the side.
The ball went high and the wind swung it in to drop just centrally over the cross bar. The final score was 23-21. A brilliant hard fought game with an even more thoroughly deserved win.
On Saturday, the Streltham team played against Spotswood.
The team was lead onto the field by Shaan Wineera, hand on shoulder in a long line of solidarity as Shaan continues with his cancer treatment.
An auction was held after the match to raise funds to help him and his family in these difficult times.
The game kicked off with the same determination of the previous two rounds, Spotswood defending their line with determination, but Streltham were to clinical in attack and scored several times into the corners, halftime brought a 26-0 lead.
The second half was pretty much the same but Spotswood resilience finally showed through with two tries to bring the final score to 56-12 to the home team.
This week, Streltham take on New Plymouth Old Boys to secure their place in the finals.