Rugby: Hamilton downs valiant TBC

Tauranga Boys' Jayden Tane is tackled during the Chiefs Top Four playoff game. Photo / Joel Ford

Tauranga Boys' College First XV's season came crashing to a dramatic end at Nicholson Field yesterday.

They were taken apart by a complete performance from Hamilton Boys' High School in the match to find the team to represent the Chiefs at next week's Top Four national finals.

The 39-9 defeat will be hard to take for the players who have contributed so much to the latter part of the season but Hamilton proved way too clinical and showed a level of technical proficiency rarely seen at schoolboy level.

They were simply outstanding at the breakdown and their punishing defence caused many errors and turn overs.

Everything was in place for a heroic victory and a first ever appearance at the Top Four finals for Tauranga. The crowd was the biggest for years, SKY TV's cameras added drama to the day, and two stirring haka had the players fizzing at kick off. Even the visiting supporters' annoying cow bells added to the atmosphere.

Tauranga started well and after a brilliant cut through Hamilton's defence by first-five Dan Hollinshead, carried on by Jayden Tane, they were cruelly denied an opening try by some goal line mischief that was missed by the referee. Even so, they jumped out to a 6-0 lead with two Hollinshead penalties but that was the beginning and the end of the day for Tauranga.

Hamilton got their impressive ball running forwards rumbling forward and quickly capitalised on the inevitable holes. First five Bryn Gatland, watched by dad and British Lions coach Warren, made a huge break to set up winger Isaac Te Tamaki before lock Viliami Tuipolotu crashed over.

Right winger Paul Narawa finished off another concisely constructed move to put Hamilton up 20-6. In injury time Hollinshead kicked another penalty but at 20-9 down, and facing a freshening breeze, things were not looking good for the home supporters and they quickly got worse.

Minutes into the second spell came the telling blow for Tauranga when Te Tamaki broke a tackle and burnt the defence off from 45 metres for a brilliant individual try. What followed was an intense 10 minutes defending their line by Tauranga before inevitably the points had to come.

Firstly the luck went Hamilton's way when a speculative punt bounced off the crossbar and fell into fullback Te Raina Richards-Coxhead's arms for a try under the posts, before an audacious piece of skill with a kick and recover from giant lock Samual Chongkit put an end to the scoring.

Hamilton now face Wellington College in the Top Four semifinal next week while Tauranga have a few weeks to recover before the trip of a lifetime to Ireland, Wales and Hong Kong at the end of the month.

It was a disappointing end to the season but Tauranga can look back with pride at beating Rotorua Boys' for the first time since 1994. They managed it twice this year with both wins in Rotorua to add to the achievement.

Hamilton Boys' High School 39 (Isaac Te Tamaki 2, Viliami Tuipolotu, Paul Narawa, Te Raina Richards-Coxhead, Samual Chongkit tries; Bryn Gatland 3 cons, pen) Tauranga Boys' College 9 (Dan Hollinshead 3 pens)