PNBHS NEWS

1st XV Sound Win over Wellington College

 
Picture of Dominic King
1st XV Sound Win over Wellington College
by Dominic King - Sunday, 8 May 2016, 12:31 PM
 

The PNBHS 1st XV continued its preseason fixture list today with a game in the Hurricanes Festival against Wellington College.  The team has been building well and wanted to continue its momentum against this traditional foe. 

The game started poorly for the home side with an early knock on leading to an attacking scrum and a simple back line move from the opposition leading to a converted try – 7-0 after 2 minutes.  The team quickly flushed this and spent some time in the attacking half.  Possession swung back and forward between the two sides for the next five minutes with both sides turning ball over at the breakdown.  A ruck penalty for us was missed but the resulting drop out was claimed and Wellington were stretched down one side of the field before the ball was swung back to the other side and Ariki Mullen was able to continue his fine form with a well taken try.  Stewart Cruden converted and it was 7-7 after ten minutes.   Play once again moved up and down between the ten metres with some surges into the 22’s for each side but there was very good defense being shown by both sides, breaking down promising attacks.  Wellington then spent some time in the 22 and had a number of scrums and lineouts that enabled them to launch attacks plays at our tryline but our defense held firm.  We then were able to spend some time on attack ourselves and after one effective breach and kick through, we earned ourselves a 5 metre scrum.  A number of phases later Michael Ioane crashed over and we went 12-7 up.  Shortly thereafter we were reduced to 14 men with a player sent to the sinbin for repeated off side infringments.  Wellington knocked over the penalty and then scored another one on the stroke of half time to head into the break 13-12 up. 

The half time message was around increased accuracy at the breakdown so as to create quick ball and this was certainly taken on board by the players.  The forwards were continuing to generate good go forward but the speed of the ruck was starting to improve and thus our attacking weapons out wide were able to exploit the space well.  This led to us dominating field position for the opening 20 minutes and, despite being a man down, Te Ariki Te Puni was rewarded for a fine game by rumbling over for a try from a line out drive.  We continued to be able to control possession with good ruck play and another try was scored, this one to Wesley Veikoso meaning a unique trifecta for the front row with all three starters scoring.  In the last quarter of the game, possession started to even up a little but our defense continued to be strong and pleasingly Wellington scored no points in the second half.  Two more penalties late in the game pushed the score out to 30-13 by the final whistle.

All in all it was a pleasing performance by the 1st XV and another step up from the previous game as we build towards the start of our Super 8 campaign.  Our next game sees us playing Scots College from Wellington next Saturday at the Petone Rec at 1pm. 

Points Scorers:

Tries: Ariki Mullen,  Michael Ioane, Te Ariki Te Puni, Wesley Veikoso

Conversions:  Stewart Cruden 2;    Penalties:  Stewart Cruden         

Pictures of the Match