1st XV v King’s College - Match Report
The 1st XV made the long trek to Auckland in the last weekend of the holidays to play its annual fixture against King’s College. King’s are currently sitting in the top four of the Auckland 1A competition and so this game was going to be a true test of our abilities.
From the outset, the trend was set with the 1st’s having to absorb a huge amount of King’s attack pressure as they recycled ball well. We pressured them into execution mistakes and were able to execute well but the kicking game of the King’s backs pinned us back into our 22. As the tackle count continued to rise we were given some attack opportunities of our own and one counterattack resulted in a well taken team try. This gave us confidence but normal pattern resumed with King’s again setting up camp within our half. They finally got on the board with a penalty – testament to the defence line in front of them – and with the half winding down we held a 7-3 lead. Unfortunately their power runners had one more crack right on half time and they were able to cross to take a 10-7 lead.
The half time talk was around maintaining our defensive integrity and looking for the attack pictures that were evident, especially from set piece.
The first fifteen minutes of the second half were average defensively. Crucial one on one tackles that were made in the first half were not during this period. King’s are a very good side and they made us pay by running in three further tries. A well-deserved lead became a 25-7 deficit in the space of 17 minutes. To the teams credit they knuckled down, fixed their alignment and retook the initiative through some courageous counterattack after once again forcing the King’s side into mistakes. We scored two superb team tries, finished off by debutant James Cameron in the final twenty minutes of the game but the damage had been done through the middle third.
To adopt but modify the oft used cliché “game of two halves”, this was a game of three thirds. King’s were very good at holding onto the ball and played the territory game well. Our set piece gave us enough ball to strike from but we were unable to capitalise and thus spent a large period of the game defending. The large tackle count meant the power runners of King’s eventually found their way through and while we were able to scramble well, the breaches put paid to our chances. Fight was shown in the final twenty minutes but we gave ourselves too big a gap to chase down. The final score was a 25-27 loss
The 1st XV travel to Rotorua next weekend to resume their Super 8 campaign before a quick turnaround and the Polson Banner battle Wednesday week.
Points Scorers:
Tries: Max Harris
James Cameron x 2
Conversions: Stewart Cruden