Melville prove they're no flukes
20th April 2010 02:58PM
By EVAN PEGDEN - Waikato Times
TDO Melville chalked up win No5 on the trot in the Ron Crawford Memorial Trophy preliminary round on Saturday with a 25-22 home victory against defending champions Wagon Wheel Morrinsville Sports, who were bouncing back from a shocker the week before.
In doing so the red and greens earned their first bonus point of the season for scoring four tries.
That still puts them three points shy of fellow unbeaten side and competition leaders CBD Hamilton Old Boys, who ran riot at Taupiri to score 10 tries in a 68-18 win over Taupiri Tavern Taupiri.
Level with Melville on 21 points are Shenanigans Fraser-Tech, who were put to the test on the road by a resurgent APL Hautapu in Cambridge before winning 17-14. This weekend's clash between Tech and Melville should be a cracker.
Hamilton Marist powered up into the top four with a 60-12 win over bottom-of-the-table Reid and Harrison United Matamata Sports, also scoring 10 tries, while OTC Otorohanga sounded a warning to the other teams when they ended a three-match winning streak by Seafood Bazaar Te Rapa 21-0 in Hamilton.
Ecolab Te Awamutu Sports got their second win of the season when they got up late to beat University 27-22.
Melville 25 - Morrinsville Sports 22
This was a top-quality match at Collins Rd that tested Melville's mettle as Morrinsville kept coming back at them but they produced the sort of well-balanced all-round game that indicates they are in this for the long haul.
In the end it looked comfortable on paper with the home side scoring four tries to one with sound fullback Brook Tremayne's goal-kicking (five penalty goals and a conversion) keeping the visitors in it, but Melville certainly had to do their share of defending and they did it well, while attacking the breakdowns aggressively.
On attack Melville had a simple plan and they stuck to it well, committing the visiting forwards heavily to defence in one corner of the field through their loose forwards like skipper Haimona Waititi and Noel Galloway as well as their elusive backs like TK Moeke and Jimmy Horsford before switching play wide to the other side of the field with mobile prop Hikairo Forbes invariably out in midfield at that stage to further commit the defence. The result was two tries to Moeke and one each to wing Peceli Kama and Forbes.
Lock Teia Tuuta ruled the lineouts along with Waititi and giant prop Viliami Tuungufasi committed defenders to some tiring work, while the out-of-position Alex Bradley (open-side flank) and Tom Rowling (No8) in the forwards and Andre Wilson, Michael Hotene and try-scorer Dan Spencer in the backs did their best to spark things for Morrinsville.
Fraser-Tech 17 Hautapu 14
Two successful penalty goals late in the second half of the match at Memorial Park, Cambridge, enabled Fraser-Tech to get home against Hautapu, after an excellent contest between two evenly matched teams.
The Hamilton side, writes John Holt, played the game at pace and Hautapu had to produce a stringent defensive effort to limit the visitors to a 5-0 lead after 20 minutes, the only points coming from a slick try to Fraser-Tech fullback Nathan Lamb, who scored following a break by first five-eighth Sam Christie.
A short time later Hautapu took the lead after blind-side flanker Jordan Smiler broke down the grandstand sideline and unloaded to wing Ruamai Erueti who scored unopposed, with five-eighth Tom Casey landing the wide-angled conversion. Lamb then kicked two penalty goals to have Fraser-Tech ahead 11-7 at the break.
Early in the second half Hautapu scored their second try when Smiler crashed over to touch down handy to the goal posts, Casey's second successful conversion getting the home side into the lead by 14-11. However, Fraser-Tech had the final say with two further penalty goals from Lamb.
Fullback Lamb had a top all round game for Tech as well as scoring all of his sides points, while beanpole lock Peniasi Iowane was the pick of the winning side's forward pack with his excellent aerial lineout work.
On the day, the Hautapu forward pack matched their opponents and, as a unit, are sure to improve over the coming weeks. Behind them, whether running, passing or kicking, halfback Tawera Kerr-Barlow was all class in everything he did.
Otorohanga 21 - Te Rapa 0
This performance certainly rocked an in-form Te Rapa side on their own ground at St Andrews Park with Otorohanga – the best defensive side in the competition to date – keeping them scoreless.
A try to wing Solo Korovata and two penalty goals by James Hemara gave the dominant visitors an 11-0 lead and midfield back Joe Perawiti provided the second-half touchdown with the extras again from Hemara.
Up front lock Nathan Logonimoce dominated the lineouts for Otorohanga, big prop Viliame Seu Seu had a strong match and returning halfback Ben Needham produced the sort of big-passing service that gave his dangerous backline room to run.
But the best player on the field was Otorohanga open-side flanker Chris Keech, who was outstanding.
Flanker Tu Mateaki was Te Rapa's best, while second-five Andrew Martyn made some strong breaks in the first half only to be shut down by Otorohanga replacement Terry White in the second spell.
Hamilton Old Boys - 68 Taupiri 18
Old Boys were just too quick, too strong, too fit and too polished for Taupiri in this match at Murphy Field with the wingers scoring seven of the 10 tries between them.
Matt Kenny got four of those while Henry Speight, who got three, was particularly impressive.
Closer in the loose forward effort was spearheaded by Johan Bardoul and David Faville, who set up two or three tries. But Taupiri were able to spoil some of Old Boys' ball and after being down 33-3 at halftime managed to stick to their task and score three good tries to Mark Cameron, Ben Harris and Liam Tansey.
Hamilton Marist 60 - Utd Matamata Sports 12
Marist led this one 43-12 at halftime but things deteriorated in the second half of an unremarkable match at Marist Park as they failed to stick to their structure.
Trent Renata scored two of the 10 tries and converted four of them, while No8 Willisoni Quiquiwaqa impressed with ball in hand in his first start for the green and whites and flanker Steve Ketu won man-of-match honours for his hard-working performance.
While Matamata scored all their points in the first half they did force Marist to do a lot of defending in the last 10 minutes of the match.
Te Awamutu Sports 27 - University 22
Impressive halfback Brad Mayo was the hero for the home side at Albert Park, scoring the winning try in the corner to break a 22-22 deadlock with about five minutes to play.
Te Awamutu led 15-0 at halftime with Danny O'Connor, this time playing at lock, again having a strong game, as did flanker Cohen Masson, while wing Tim Bird impressed on defence.
But University came roaring back at them after halftime, scoring an early try and dominating for about 20 minutes as the home side went off the boil.
While the home team replied with a converted try of their own, the Varsity side grabbed two more tries and a penalty goal to level the scores before Mayo's match winner.
Prop Rewi Haapu did an outstanding job anchoring the University scrum and skipper Ryan Scholes steadied the ship when he came on in the second half to help lift the intensity levels. Joe Murray, Arnold Meredith and Tim Mikkelson were the pick of the backs.
