Collegiate 1st XV gallant against the best

TEXT BOOK: Wanganui Collegiate's Zack Simpson takes down a Wellington College player in a text book tackle during the annual rugby quadrangular in Christchurch.

The Wanganui Collegiate 1st XV showed courage and great comeback skills against stiff opposition in the annual rugby quadrangular in Christchurch this week.

Despite finishing fourth behind Christ, Wellington and Nelson Colleges, the Collegiate lads rallied late in both of their matches and put their nationally-ranked rivals under pressure.

Collegiate met the strong Wellington side first up on Tuesday holding them to a respectable 18-8 scoreline before tackling the current Moascar Cup holders Nelson in the play-off for third and fourth yesterday. Nelson won 29-17 after stretching out to a 17-nil lead at half time.

Collegiate director of extra curricular Barry Touzel said while the Wanganui lads scored three tries in the second half, the scoreline may well have been different if missed chances had been taken.

"The boys played very well this week against nationally-ranked colleges and were far from disgraced," Touzel said.

"We had chances in our match with Nelson which were unfortunately not taken."
Touzel said to put the challenge in context all three rival colleges had huge rolls to chose from compared to Collegiate.
"We have around 250 boys on the roll, while Wellington has around 1400, Nelson 1250 and Christ 650, so we did well. These schools are at the top of the table in their respective rugby competitions."

Cody Hemi, Harry Symes and Luke Foster each scored second half tries against Nelson, while Hemi also kicked one conversion.

In the game against Wellington Tom Matthews scored a try and Hemi kicked a penalty.
Wellington College made the final for a 19th consecutive year after a far from convincing win against Collegiate on Tuesday.
Wellington started brightly enough when bulky second-five La'au Finau broke multiple tackles and burst away to score, but poor ball security and curious option taking would hinder Wellington for much of the game.

Collegiate lost two try scoring chances in the first-half. Wing Harry Symes dropped a pin-point cross kick with just the try line ahead and fullback Matthews shelled a pass from hooker Joe Hazelhurst while sprinting into the clear.

Collegiate forced Wellington to defend for most of the final 10 minutes, but was unable to add to their score despite a lofty penalty count in their favour. Matthews and Hazelhurst had strong games.

Newly-appointed Collegiate director of rugby and former Wanganui Heartland coach, Guy Lennox said while it was disappointing not to come away with at least one win, the Wanganui side was gallant in defeat.

"We did come here aiming for a win, but these are strong teams we played and the results showed we are up there with them. It gives confidence we can come to these sorts of competitions and not always return home the gallant losers," Lennox said.

In the main final hosts Christ College beat Wellington 24-19 after leading 16-5 at the break.