Wellington College Report
The 1st XV played Wellington College at Westpac Stadium on Saturday, serving as the curtain raiser to the Hurricanes Cheetahs game.
The team were clearly overawed by the occasion in the first ten minutes and allowed Wellington to score a quick ten points through a converted try and a penalty. Mackenzie Tansley finally got the team going forward and, in tandem with James Woodmass, produced a couple of surging runs that woke his team mates. He was rewarded with a superb try that was duly converted and the game started to even up. Wellington were making the most of some inaccuracies at the breakdown and were threatening at times but our defensive play was starting to fire as well. Our set piece found its feet after a shaky start and as possession started to even up, we were able to up the tempo of the game and start running the bigger Wellington pack around. This was to pay dividends in the second half. Wellington scored a penalty on the stroke of half time to take a 13-7 lead into the break but had been playing with the advantage of a stiff breeze and so we were positive heading into the second half.
And so it played out. We controlled possession far better with our offload game and width of attack stretching the Wellington defense. The speed of our play was also difficlut to stay with and we scored shortly after half time to close the gap to 12-13. James Stratton started to make his mark with a man of the match performance as his runs, coupled with the added value we were getting from the bench, swung momentum in our favour. Two more tries were added to the score line and we prevailed 22-13, pleasingly holding Wellington scoreless in the second half.
This wraps up the preseason campaign with the team travelling to Gisborne next week to play the first round of the Super 8.
Points Scorers:
Tries: Mackenzie Tansley x 2
James Stratton
Darel Lander
Conversions: Stewart Cruden
Pics can be viewed on Wellington College