TRAINING RUN: The St Johns Club Wanganui Metro colts are thin on the ground at both training and on game day with injuries and suspensions affecting numbers.
TRAINING RUN: The St Johns Club Wanganui Metro colts are thin on the ground at both training and on game day with injuries and suspensions affecting numbers.
The next two weeks will set the scene for the finals of the Manawatu McDonalds Colts rugby championship with the two Whanganui teams snapping at the heels of the defending titleholders.
Defending champions Massey White gained maximum points on Saturday after Massey Ag defaulted, while both the Wanganui School 1stXV and St Johns Club Wanganui Metro collected four points apiece with contrasting away victories at the weekend.
WHS outlasted Old Boys Marist Cafe Cuba Lightning Dolphins 24-17, while on the adjacent Ongley Park paddock Metro ran away to a 33-7 win over Old Boys Marist Fitzherbert Rowe.
The Whanganui wins and Massey Ag default leaves WHS and Massey White tied at the top of the table on 12 points, while Metro is third on 8 points. On Saturday WHS dominated early against the Dolphins and scored first before the Manawatu side found its rhythm.
WHS manager Richard Bennett said the first eight minutes was one way traffic. "I don't think they got a hand on the ball in the first eight minutes as we completely dominated," Bennett said.
"They did come back though and it was a pretty even match, until we scored again to win by one converted try. We had the luxury of three of our players returning from the Hurricanes developments quad.
"Adam Boult, Griffin Culver and Dylan Bowater missed two matches for us and then returned at the weekend and that really helped. We had struggled a wee bit with injuries until then. Adam played an excellent game scoring three tries and must be a clear leader in the try scoring stakes in this competition," Bennett said.
Bennett also singled out Mitchell Millar for his territorial kicking game and Taiho Tairora on the wig for special mention. "Taiho normally plays in the forwards, but had a great game on the wing for us on Saturday. Chris Breuer (lock) and flanker Tom Healy also had very good games," Bennett said.
Meanwhile, Carl Gibson, who co-coaches Metro alongside Darryl Malcolm, said his side showed real courage and technique to run away in the second spell to win by a decent margin.
"We are still struggling to field a full squad on game day. Shayden Phillips is out for the rest of the season with a broken thumb and then Bobby Lambert (No8) has his hand in a cast now too. With other injuries and suspensions we only had one forward and one back reserve on Saturday and that makes it tough on the team," Gibson said yesterday.
"It was a pretty even match in the first half ending up 7-all. But through a real team effort we managed to run away and win 33-7 at full time."
After defaulting two weeks on end Massey Ag is expected to be back after the holidays to play Metro at Spriggens Park, while WHS tackles Massey White at home at High School. The results of these match-ups and next week's Metro-WHS clash will determine who gets home semi-finals. The actual final is always played in Manawatu.
