King’s First XV take big win over newcomers Liston College
It was another exciting weekend of rugby at King’s with convincing wins by some of our teams.
Our First XV dominated in their game against Auckland 1A newcomers Liston College, winning 51-5, including an impressive hat-trick of tries by Millenium Sanerivi.
Team Manager Daryl Williams says the First XV played some great imaginative running rugby.
“We look forward to hosting the Tamaki College this coming Saturday – another team that has been promoted from 1B last year.”
Full Reports
First XV
Liston College
51-5 to King’s
Tries: Millenium Sanerivi (3), Meihana Grindlay, Iliesa Ratuva, Zarn Sullivan, Isa'ako Enosa, Zoan Patua and Weropuna Witika
Conversions: Zarn Sullivan (3)
It was a cold, wet and blustery day for our trip out to West Auckland to meet one of two newly promoted from the 1B grade schools, Liston College, for our match. Despite the inclement weather, their field was in great shape and had been well looked after, so we were able to play the type of running and free-flowing rugby that King's is known for.
It took 10 or so minutes to start breaking down Liston’s defenses but once the King's team started sticking with the patterns, holes started to open up and we were able to score five unanswered tries, including a double to No 8, Millenium Sanerivi, with two conversions for a halftime lead of 29 - 0 playing into a staff breeze.
One try by Lock, Iliesa Ratuva, was a cracker. From the kickoff, Ratuva caught the ball, spun out of a tackle, fended off a second defender, then stepped and out-sprinted the opposing backs to run 60 metres to score a fabulous solo try. With the wind at our backs in the second half, it would have been easy to just kick the ball into the corners and pressure Liston into making mistakes, but we chose to run everything, try our moves and calls and give some of the players who had not had a lot of game-time, invaluable match time.
We managed to score another four tries in the second half with some lovely and imaginative running rugby but also let in one try to Liston. That was disappointing, as our goal was to work really hard on defense and keep them scoreless.
Millenium Sanerivi scored another try for a personal hat-trick before being subbed-off to allow the coaches to clear the bench and give all the reserves an opportunity to play. The coaches were happy to pick up the bonus point to keep us within distance of the current leaders and we look forward to hosting the other team who has been promoted from 1B last year, Tamaki College, next Saturday at King's.
There is a tradition at King's that when a player has played 14 championship or traditional matches, that they receive their King's College Cap. Last weekend, Captain Hayes Okesene and this week against Liston, lock Iliesa Ratuva both reached 14 matches and received their caps from Head Coach Tasesa Lavea in the changing room in front of their peers.
2nd XV
Kelston Boys’ High School
17-3 to King’s
Tries: Lupeni Tonga, Tahu Watson and Luke Tuhaka
Converson: Josh Numanga
Despite the very low historic success rate of King's teams playing away to Kelston Boys’ High School over the last 10 years, and on the back of a hectic Friday night of Big House Music, King's 2nd XV were able to stay in the game and score the winning try in the final two minutes of this exciting game.
Choosing to play with some very strong wind behind them, King's started well and immediately went onto attack. Lineout's were always going to be the key weapon with locks Billy Coman and Tevyn Anitelea, and this proved fruitful in the first minutes when contesting on the Kelston tryline. The ball popped loose to Lupeni Tonga to score. Josh Numanga did very well to convert with the difficult cross-wind.
Player of the day, Tahu Watson, was damaging in his running lines and showed great agility to split the defence and score near the posts to give a solid 12-0 lead. Kelston were their normal selves, attacking from everywhere, and were rewarded with two length of the field tries to reduce the halftime lead for King's to 12-10.
An intriguing second half awaited, with 35 minutes holding on into a howling wind. King's knew they would have to attack and were constantly threatening. Reece Waters was excellent on the counter-attack, working well with Tuhaka and Ben Taylor to bring back ball into the gale. A solitary penalty to Kelston set up an exciting last few minutes with Kelston leading 12-13. Constant attempts to slow play were penalised and King's threw themselves at the line. A quick tap from Numanga saw Will Boyden avoid a massive hit and flick the ball on to Oliva Mason whose quick hands put Luke Tuhaka into space for the try.
With two minutes to play it could not have been more exciting. A final scrum on the King's line resulted in the ball popping out and bobbling into our score-zone to just roll into touch before Kelston could convert it into points. A rare and satisfying result to get the competition started.
Colts
Southern Cross High School
19-12 to King’s
Tries: Mogammad Smith (1), Fraser Hardy (2)
Conversions: Tamati Panoho (2)
The King’s Colts First XV came out storming with an early home game this morning against Southern Cross High School’s 2nd XV.
It was a very even first half with good structure with the boys being lead around the field by Xela Pathan (1st 5) and Joe Marr (Half back). The forwards had great execution in their lineouts which set a great foundation for athletics sprinter Mogammad Smith to use his pace and score in the corner.
Tamati Panoho converted the kick with the ball curving like banana to slot over the sticks. The loosie trio was yet again relentless on defense. However star No.8, Ryan Gordon, went down with a shoulder injury in the first half. The boys managed to keep strong defence, leaving the score 7-7 at half time.
Second half started off slow with a wake-up call as Southern Cross’ forwards busted through the line to score and we were down 12-7. However, Tamati Panoho's outstanding kicks put Southern Cross on the back foot and we were able to gain a lot of territory with the wind behind us. Hooker Fraser Hardy scored two typical Dane Coles tries resulting in the end score of 19-12 to King’s. Outstanding work rate from prop Lucas Brooke and Captain Harry Lee around the field lifted the boys to keep Southern Cross off our line. There are many positives to take out from today's game, and the team will be looking to improve on their work leading into training and their game this coming Saturday.
U15s
Wesley College
19-26 to Wesley College
Tries: Trent Taiaroa, Taniela Mapusua-Lotaki, Max Webb;
Conversions: Max Webb and Budda Doyle
King’s won the toss against Wesley College and elected to play into a strong wind. After 15 minutes we were up 12-0. We had scored two very good tries and our defence was excellent during this period. Taniela Mapusua-Lotaki beat 5 attackers to score in the corner and Trent Taiaroa intercepted and ran 60m to score under the posts. However, Wesley started to adapt to the conditions and attacked us thorough the middle by using their forwards to smash over the advantage line. They scored two tries to be ahead 12-14 at the break.
In the second half we had the strong wind and at times driving rain behind us. Wesley made good use of the conditions and kept the ball close. They scored a try from our scrum feed on the 5m line to go ahead 19-12. We didn’t give up, and Max Webb scored a try from a charge down to level the scores at 19-19. We had our opportunities in the last few minutes, but Wesley was resolute in defence and won the match. We managed to secure a vital bonus point, which may prove significant in our goal to make the top 4. This week we play Manurewa High School at home.
4th Grade
Sacred Heart College 4A
0-51 to Sacred Heart College
The 4th Grade team once again went into a game with late withdrawals for various reasons. Playing the top team was a big assignment in itself. However we focused on developing aspects of our game and we were proud of the huge effort to be competitive. There was a big improvement from the first two games and things are building for us. The team were all brave today and played with pride till the final whistle. Thank you to Mr Potts for refereeing our game.
5A
St Peter’s College
22-7 to King’s
No match report available.
5B
Pukekohe High School
17-14 to King’s
Tries: Pumisak Supachaisakron (2)
Conversions: Tom Grey (2)
Penalty: Jack Graham-Crowther
This was a very good game in trying conditions. The win was based on an excellent second half defence although we did concede a penalty try with five minutes to go leveling the scores at 14-14. However, we were able to turn over the ball at kick-off which led to a penalty in the last play of the game.
5C/6C
Sancta Maria College
5-72 to Sancta Maria College
1 Try
The team suffered another disappointing loss. There was some improvement on last week, yet with limited possession and a poor defensive effort the scoreline fell heavily in favour of Sancta Maria College. I look forward to addressing some key issues in training this week.
6A
Pukekohe High School
32-3 to King’s
Try: George Hall (2), Ben Snell (2), Connor Hislop-Donaldson, Kaahia Whatuira
Conversion: Nathan Robinson (1)
6A took a trip down to Pukekohe High School to play their second round match and came home with a very convincing 32-3 win.
The match was played in atrocious weather conditions and the boys played some tight, clever rugby to ensure the pressure was always put on the Pukekohe backline who never really knew what to do in the wet, windy conditions.
Quite a few boys had to play out of position and it was a great opportunity to see how everybody copes when circumstances are not ideal. The forwards laid the foundation up front and the backs converted with clever play. Ben Snell and Nathan Robinson stood up as the co-captains and marshalled the troops very well.
7A
Kaipara College
64-0 to King’s
12 Tries and 2 Conversions
From the very start, the 7A team were clearly going to be the dominant team against Kaipara College, who struggled to compete against both our forwards and backs. Despite a weaker opposition, we certainly showed improvement from the previous week, adopting a more cohesive game plan and also displaying improved skills and a willingness to attack the opposition in all phases.
Well done boys! Next week, our match against Westlake Boys’ High School will not be so easy, so it will be important to keep focussed on improving our skills.
