Rugby: Mistakes fatal for Collegiate

FORWARD POWER: In typical fashion Collegiate captain and openside flanker Te Atuarere Albert bullocks his way over the advantage line against Christ's College yesterday. Photo/Stuart Murno

Two needless ruck infringements cost Wanganui Collegiate School third place in the 88th annual Quadrangular Rugby Tournament played on home turf yesterday.

The host team were matched up with Christ's College in the playoff for third and fourth after both sides lost to Wellington and Nelson colleges, respectively, on Monday. Christ's College emerged victorious, winning 6-0.

Collegiate and Christ's were evenly matched with neither side looking likely to score in the first half apart from an early penalty shot at goal missed by Christ's College. Collegiate also had a half-chance in the first spell when regular kicker and No10 Stephen Perofeta attempted a kick from the 41-metre mark which only just missed.

A better opportunity came for Collegiate later in the half when the hosts strangely opted for a scrum rather than a penalty kick from around the 22m mark. Collegiate won the scrum, but were unable to make any inroads toward the line.

The match again meandered along without any likely scoring chances until host halfback Barnaby Smith was sin-binned right on halftime.

Smith was already on a warning for coming into the ruck from the side and the resulting penalty was converted nicely by Christ's second five-eighth Railen Thatcher to produce a 3-nil lead at the break to the visitors.

The game, played in atrocious conditions after heavy morning rain in Wanganui, see-sawed early in the second spell with both sides grinding away in the difficult conditions.

With 17 minutes left to play, Collegiate were again penalised for rushing in from the side of a ruck and Thatcher was quick to capitalise, slotting his second goal to make it 6-0.

Time was almost up when Collegiate rallied and attacked the visitors' line with an intense forward push. The Collegiate forwards got within a half-metre of the line through a series of pick and carry movements, but were repelled by the staunch Christ's defence.

When it was swung wide Perofeta made a rare mistake, knocking the ball on. Christ's scrambled the ball out over the dead ball line to end the match.

While slightly disappointed, Collegiate coach Denis Edwards was still proud of his team for a solid commitment throughout the 70-minute game.

"It was bitterly cold out there today and extremely wet underfoot, but I think both sides did a magnificent job with ball retention in the very difficult conditions," Edwards said yesterday. "It really came down to the silly errors and several wrong options which combined to cost us the match. I was still pretty proud of the boys though. They tried their hardest."

Meanwhile, Wellington College made it 12 quadrangulars on end after a gutsy 5-0 win over Nelson in the final yesterday.

With the field the leveller Wellington were lucky to withstand a strong challenge from the Mainlanders with both sides having their opportunities. The nil-all half time scoreline reflected the conditions, but a typical forward push allowed Wellington hooker Sitiveni Paongo to dot down midway through the second spell to take the match.