Whanganui Chronicle
  • Whanganui Chronicle home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology

Locations

  • Taranaki
  • National Park
  • Whakapapa
  • Ohakune
  • Raetihi
  • Taihape
  • Marton
  • Feilding
  • Palmerston North

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • New Plymouth
  • Whanganui
  • Palmertson North
  • Levin

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Whanganui Chronicle

Rugby: Boxon just run down by Linton Cobras in TRL home game

Jesse King
By Jesse King
Reporter·Whanganui Chronicle·
6 May, 2018 08:00 AM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Linton Cobras fought hard to pull off a remarkable comeback victory over Whanganui Boxon in Taranaki Rugby League on Saturday.

Linton Cobras fought hard to pull off a remarkable comeback victory over Whanganui Boxon in Taranaki Rugby League on Saturday.

It might be the comeback of the season.

Whanganui Boxon were in the box-seat in their opening second round game of the TRL Paddock to Plate Butchery Premiership and looked to be cruising.

They had a 14 point lead over the Linton Cobras with 20 minutes to play at Whanganui City College, but then the wheels fell off.

The Cobras scored four unanswered tries to storm home and beat Boxon 36-30 in a remarkable comeback victory.

Whanganui Boxon coach Haze Reweti said his team needed to work on closing out games.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"We had that game with 20 to go, but the energy was really good from Linton today," Reweti said.

"There have been a couple of times where we haven't finished off our games when we've had a good, comfortable lead."

Boxon done well to get into the game after an error-riddled first half performance saw them heading for the sheds 16-6 down.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The Cobras showed good line speed early on, exhibited by five-eighth Shadow Wirori, who intercepted a Boxon pass and ran 60m before being run down.

That break busted Boxon's structure, and the Cobras shifted the ball wide to winger Troydon Lochore, who scored in the corner.

Lochore was a handful in the first half – he set up another try with a run through the middle, busting some poor tackles and leaving the defence in tatters.

Eventually Lochore was brought down, but the Cobras shifted wide to Wirori, who had a world of space and could have walked his try in.

Discover more

Boxon's Reweti appointed Mustangs coach

20 Jul 02:00 AM

In between time, Cobras centre Tevita Faukafa had scored on the back of a 40/20 kick and Boxon got their only try of the half through block-busting back-rower Ritchie Graham.

Reweti told his team to adapt at the break.

"I just told them to adjust to the ref, get back to how we play and remember our structures.

"We did do that in the first twenty minutes of the second half, but then we fell away."

It was a new game after the break and the Cobras discipline let them down.

They gave away back-to-back penalties and Boxon's monster prop Shade Heta made them pay by tapping the ball and muscling his way over the line.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Boxon's tryscorers were beasts – two big runs from Heta and Graham from the kickoff paved the way for Corey-Lee Robertson to gather a grubber kick and score.

At 16-16 Boxon did not take the foot off, as winger Tai Logadraudrau scored, then hooker Steven Aue piled the pain on the Cobras with back-to-back tries.

It was 30-16 and Boxon might not have worried when Faukafa burst through two defenders and ran 50m to snatch one back for the Cobras.

That thought changed after the kickoff when the Cobras worked their way back up field and Wirori sliced through the Boxon defence to score another.

The Boxon team from the first half were back, and in the blink of an eye Corey Governor had scored for the Cobras and converted it to give them a remarkable 32-30 lead.

Under pressure, Robertson tried to pull off a big play for Boxon, but his kick went out on the full and the Cobras punished the mistake by scoring through centre Nikolao Ioane.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Governor's conversion was going over, but the ball began to bend and collided with the post – leaving Boxon still a chance to tie.

Robertson gave them a shot when his kickoff forced an error, but it was over moments later as Aue passed the ball straight to ground and the Cobras pounced on it to complete their stunning comeback 36-30.

Reweti said it was back to the training paddock for his team.

"We'll work on executing our game plan, because when we do, it works.

"We march up the field quite easily, what we do off the back of that just has to be better.

"We let it slip away today," Reweti said.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Save

    Share this article

Latest from Whanganui Chronicle

Whanganui Chronicle

Pilot academy boss resigns amid safety investigation

18 Jun 05:10 PM
Sport

Athletics: Rising stars shine at cross country champs

18 Jun 05:00 PM
Whanganui Chronicle

Taihape Area School set for transformative rebuild

18 Jun 05:00 PM

Jono and Ben brew up a tea-fuelled adventure in Sri Lanka

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Whanganui Chronicle

Pilot academy boss resigns amid safety investigation

Pilot academy boss resigns amid safety investigation

18 Jun 05:10 PM

Students remain 'in the dark' about what comes next.

Athletics: Rising stars shine at cross country champs

Athletics: Rising stars shine at cross country champs

18 Jun 05:00 PM
Taihape Area School set for transformative rebuild

Taihape Area School set for transformative rebuild

18 Jun 05:00 PM
Kaierau A2 and Waimarino draw in thrilling Premier 2 netball clash

Kaierau A2 and Waimarino draw in thrilling Premier 2 netball clash

18 Jun 04:00 PM
Help for those helping hardest-hit
sponsored

Help for those helping hardest-hit

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Whanganui Chronicle e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Whanganui Chronicle
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP