Swindale Shield comes alive in second round thrillers

Fresh from pipping Avalon by a point in last week’s Gala Day opener, Wainuiomata lit up the competition by beating defending champions and big week one winners Old Boys University 22-20 at home at William Jones Park, while Hutt Old Boys Marist raced to a 47-19 win over Northern United at Porirua Park and Avalon defeated Johnsonville 34-10 at Fraser Park.

For the second successive week, Tawa were lightning fast out of the blocks before surviving a comeback, in their 39-26 win over fellow opening week winners Oriental-Rongotai at Lyndhurst Park.

Elsewhere, Marist St Pat’s Poneke and Petone registered their first wins of 2018 with victories over Wellington, the Upper Hutt Rams and Paremata-Plimmerton respectively. MSP beat Wellington 25-17 at Evans Bay Park, Poneke ousted the Rams 32-17 at Maidstone Park and Petone blanked Paremata-Plimmerton 55-0 at Ngatitoa Domain.

After the first two weeks, the HOBM Eagles, Tawa and the Avalon Wolves are unbeaten, while the Upper Hutt Rams, the Johnsonville Hawks and Paremata-Plimmerton are all yet to register their first wins for 2018.

The second round of Premier Reserve Harper Lock Shield saw Northern United beat HOBM 45-8 to register their second straight bonus point win. MSP and Poneke both made it two from two, MSP beating Wellington’s second team 53-17 and Poneke winning 29-19 at Upper Hutt. In other early games, Johnsonville reversed their Premier side’s result by beating the Wolves 31-17, Tawa pipped Ories 17-10, OBU beat Wainuiomata 44-14 and Petone defeated Paremata-Pimmerton 53-5.

Fullback Justin Wilson scored all his team’s 22 points against OBU, scoring a try and kicked five penalties and a conversion.

Wilson scored out wide and converted his own try to open the scoring OBU replied with unconverted tries to No. 8 Teariki Ben Nicholas and centre Wes Goosen. Returning from injury, Goosen was to play the first half only. Wilson kicked a penalty to put his side ahead 13-10 at halftime.

Wilson kicked two long-range penalties to extend Wainuiomata’s  lead to 19-10. OBU replied with a penalty and a converted try scored by halfback Tomasi Palu to put OBU ahead 20-19 with halfback But Wilson kicked the winning penalty with about 10 minutes to play and they held on to win.

At Jerry Collins Stadium, Hutt Old Boys Marist making a dream start to this year’s competition – after dropping their opening two matches last year – and Northern United making far too many errors in slippery conditions and conceding a barrage of penalties.

Four Super Rugby players were involved this game, James O’Reilly at hooker and Chase Tiatia at second-five for HOBM, and Leni Apisai at blindside flanker and Jackson Garden-Bachop  in the five-eighths for Norths.

HOBM led 20-7 at halftime and then quickly pulled away with three tries including the second half opener to Tiatia, who scored two tries. HOBM led 47-7 with 10 minutes to play.

Norths scored two consolation tries to narrow the score, to replacement Esi Komaisavai and through a penalty try, but it was too little too late.

Up the road at Ngatitoa Domain, Petone retained the Ken Gray Cup with their first win of 2018, running in nine tries to beat Paremata-Plimmerton 55-0.

The match was competitive for 30 minutes, as Petone scored their first two tries and took a 12-0 lead. Just before halftime, halfback Logan Henry shot through a ruck and sprinted 40 metres to put his side up 19-0.

It was 24-0 at halftime and then Petone fullback Adam Simpson ran in an early second half hat-trick and it was game over.

Tawa made a solid start against Ories and then survived a second half fightback to win a thriller 39-26.

Tawa raced to a 17-0 lead with tries to first five-eighth James So’oialo, centre Ryan Preston and fullback PJ Iosefo. Ories hit back with their first try to centre Malo Tuitama and it was 17-7 to Tawa. So’oialo kicked a penalty and scored his second try to put the home side ahead 25-7 as rain arrived to help spice things up going into the second half.

Ories crossed for a seven-pointer to close the gap to 14-25. They scored again to narrow the margin further to 19-25 and then ran in their bonus point try and took the lead at 26-25.  So’oialo kicked three penalties to put Tawa back in front 31-26. Tawa then sealed a tight victory with a converted try in the corner to substitute Mark Lalotoa.

The Avalon Wolves were also celebrating their second straight win to start their 2018 campaign, turning a 22-5 halftime lead into a 34-10 win at Fraser Park.

Poneke took home the Alby Makeham Shield with their 32-17 win over the Upper Hutt Rams. Poneke led 22-3 at halftime and restricted the Rams to just two second half tries. Poneke opened their season account with a bonus point win.

In the sole Swindale Shield match in town, Marist St Pat’s pulled clear of the Wellington Axemen late in the contest to take a 25-17 win.

All three of MSP’s loose forwards scored tries, Tom Horan, James Tuia and Matt Peni scored tries.

The Axemen scored the game’s first try on 15 minutes, their backs finishing of a kick ahead, making it 10-3 to the visitors. MSP hit back on 20 minutes with Horan’s try. The Axemen quickly regained the lead at 13-10, before Peni crashed over to put MSP ahead 15-13 at the turnaround.

With rain arriving, both sides battled hard for close to 20 minutes of the second half before Tuia scored after an attacking scrum on the 22 and fullback Andrew Wells converted to make it 22-13.

The Axemen kicked a penalty to close the score to 22-16 with only a few minutes to play. Fa’atonu Fili was injected off the bench and kicked a late dropped goal to deny the Axemen a bonus point.