City College second-five Jamie Robertson dives in to score with Collegiate's Sam Sheriff too late to stop him as City built on their lead in the Wanganui Secondary Schools Open final.
City College second-five Jamie Robertson dives in to score with Collegiate's Sam Sheriff too late to stop him as City built on their lead in the Wanganui Secondary Schools Open final.
City College 1st XV made it back-to-back Wanganui Secondary Schools Open grade titles as a three-try scoring burst early in the second half carried them to a 38-28 win over Wanganui Collegiate 2nd XV on Saturday.
Playing on their school ground, City were trailing Collegiate 21-0 early on, with visitingwinger Henry Gay scoring two of his team's three tries, all converted by first-five Tyler Guinea.
But City were not fazed as their big men out wide began to make inroads, and they would close the gap to 21-17 by halftime.
Former lock turned centre Tony Henry was in devastating form, as he along with midfield partner Jamie-Lee Robertson and fullback Peceli Malanicagi would run the ball from anywhere, while hooker Paki Ngaira was also aggressive.
Collegiate flanker Sam Sheriff was able to win back some turnovers, but Collegiate would squander their now-rare possessions.
Henry put his team in front when he went one-off the ruck and dived low, then moments later Malanicagi set off, supported by Henry, and then Robertson found a gap up the middle to turn on the afterburners take his team to 31-21.
Malanicagi sealed the deal when he broke through the middle and sprinted away from the scrambling Collegiate defenders to dive across, with first-five and captain Duan Marino adding his third straight close range conversion.
City College fullback Peceli Malanicagi beats the last line of defenders to get the match-winning try moments after Robertson.
Now up against it, Collegiate replied quickly as they attacked the kickoff and got a tryline ruck, with centre Angus Dinwiddie going over to narrow the gap to ten points.
Dinwiddie made a good offload to put his team back on attack but again Collegiate couldn't finish it off, as they stayed on attack for the final few minutes to get back within touch.
The front rowers and Sherriff were held up just short after a series of scrums, tap kicks and mauls at the line.
City College coach Ricky Winterburn said he was not panicking when his team fell three converted tries behind.
He team had a tough first round of the competition, dropping a couple of games, but then showed they had the temperament to come back.
"I wasn't giving up, I know they can do it," Winterburn said.
"Training paid off, their commitment. "Without [that], they don't have a team.
