Wellington Development, Maori and U18s claim wins alongside the Wellington Pride's close win after a late try

On Sunday, the Wellington Pride beat the Counties Manukau Heat 38-36, with a late try to lock Joanah Ngan-Woo leveling the scores up and second five-eighth Amanda Rasch converting.

In a see-saw game, the Pride had raced to a 12-0 lead on the back of tries to prolific left wing Ayesha Leti-I’iga who beat four defenders in a 60 metre run and openside flanker Sinead Ryder, who latched on to an inside Rasch pass after a break up the other touchline.

Counties Manukau came back to lead 17-12, but the Pride scored a great set-piece try off an attacking try on halftime with Leti-I’iga coming into the backline and scoring under the posts to put them up 19-17 at halftime.

The second half remained tight and the Heat appeared to have won the game with a runaway try, but one of their players was sin-binned with five minutes to play and this opened the door for a late Pride rally and Ngan-Woo’s match-winner.

On Saturday, there were two close wins for the Wellington Development and Maori sides.

In Napier, the Wellington Development team came from behind to produce a strong final 10 minutes to beat the Hawke’s Bay Saracens 41-30. The Hawke’s Bay team had led 26-7 at one point late in the first half.

In Christchurch, the Wellington Maori team kicked a late penalty to beat Christchurch Maori 20-19 and to win back the Tirikatene Shield.

The two Wellington U18s teams had big wins in their third and final round-robin games in the Trustbank Secondary School Shield competition.

The Wellington Centurions U18s beat the Horowhenua-Kapiti U18s 62-10 in Otaki and the Wellington Samoans U18s beat the Wairarapa-Bush U18s 65-3 at the Petone Rec.

The Centurions U18s team will play Whanganui U18s in the final next Saturday in Whanganui, while the Samoans will play Poverty Bay U18s in the third versus fourth match.

Also at the Petone Rec on Saturday, the Wellington Community U18s Women beat the Wellington Samoans U18s Women 20-10.

The U18 Girls Wellington Centurions met the Tasman U18s Girls at Porirua Park today, with Tasman coming out on top 24-15.