Rugby Results June 2011
1st XV vs Tokoroa
Saturday 25 June
On Saturday the 1st XV played in fine weather and a on a good field in Tokoroa. The game was played in good spirit. Both teams played expansive rugby which made the game enjoyable to watch.
Graydon Scheres scored the first try by breaking through the defensive line from a well executed back move. The backs scored three more tries, Graydon scored another and Aaron Crow scored two tries using his speed and agility to beat the opposition players. Izak Eksteen converted two of these tries. Just before the end of the half, Tokoroa scored a good try after a number of penalties from St Paul’s due to infringements at the breakdown.
The half time score was 24 – 5 to St Paul’s.
In the second half St Paul’s struggled to put things together at first. However after 15 minutes St Paul’s built up some momentum and put together a number of passes breaking through the opposition to score some very good tries. Graydon Scheres scored another to make his hat trick, Caleb Lingman and Jonty Wood coming off the bench, scored a try each after the forwards took more control of the game. Tokoroa did however come back to score a try. Josh Fawcett scored the last try after receiving an inside ball from Michael Gutry.
Final Score 48 – 10 to St Paul’s.
Players to standout this week were – Hamish Mahon, and Graydon Scheres
Congratulations also go to Dylan Coull and Josh Conventry for their successful debut for the 1st XV.
2nd XV vs Putaruru
26 June 2011
St Paul’s set out to maintain their unbeaten home record and also to defeat Putaruru after a draw in the first round.
Putaruru came out charging and scored a converted try within the first eight minutes. St Paul’s answered with a great try to William Cooper seven minutes later. They maintained that intensity and with fifteen minutes remaining in the first half, Laurie Meban crossed the line and the try was converted from the sideline with a great kick from Harry Larkman.
Going into the second half St Paul’s led 12-7. Maintaining their composure and utilizing their set pieces, they scored another well constructed try to captain Eoin Miles just six minutes into the second half. From here St Paul’s held onto the game with excellent defense.
Result: 17-7 to St Paul’s
St Paul's U14A vs Hamilton Boys High School Red
25 June, 2011
As expected Hamilton Boys High School red came out firing on all cylinders on Saturday – a day that saw so many fields closed after days of heavy rain. The coach was determined to give all the St Paul’s team members a game and started with those players who hadn't gone to Tauranga during the week.
With the score at only 21-19 the coach was still confident he could play all the reserves, so long as they played with heart and guts – and that's what all of the24 players did. They stood firm in the faith that they could beat bigger, stronger and overall more skillful players.
The final score was a 41-19 win to St Paul’s.
Tries to: Dillon Kelliher, Arjun Singh, Adam Ballantyne (2) and Tyrell Martin (2). Liam Jackson in Joel Taylor's absence, landed three conversions.
St Paul’s 1st XV vs St John’s
18 June 2011
On a very wet and slippery field, both rugby teams played good rugby despite the poor conditions.
St John’s started off well by scoring a well executed try in the corner after 7 minutes. This try seemed to kick St Paul’s into top gear. In the next 20 minutes St Paul’s played some of its best attacking rugby this season. The first try came from a scrum deep inside the St John’s 22m. The ball was passed through the backline to Graydon Scheres who cut through the defense and then gave a good inside ball to Hadleigh May who dived over to score next to the posts. Our next try came from Josh Fawcett who intercepted a pass and ran 65m to score under the posts. The following try came from a well executed kick from Josh Fawcett over the top of St John’s backline from inside our 22. Lachlan Cooper ran through picked up the greasy ball and passed to Graydon Scheres. Graydon ran and drew the fullback and passed inside ball to Hadleigh May who ran 35m to score under the posts. St Paul’s continued their scoring from a St John’s mistake. Aaron Crow took advantage of the situation by kicking the loose ball from half way into St John’s 22 and Lachlan Cooper finished off in style by kicking the ball over the line and diving on the ball to score the final try of the half. Jonty Rae converted all four tries.
Half time score 28 – 5 to St Paul’s.
In the second half St Paul’s lost their accuracy and intensity, which allowed St John’s to gain the momentum. St John’s took their opportunities and scored two quick tries. However St Paul’s did come back with two excellent tries. One to Hamish Mahon from a forward drive 6 metres from St John’s line and the other to Jonty Rae. Jonty ran with excellent line speed and direction to split open the defensive line and score next to the posts.
In the last minute of the game St John’s scored to make the final score 38 – 22.
St Paul’s 2nd XV vs Forest View High School
18 June 2011
On a wet drizzly day in Tokoroa, Forest View High School showed in the first ten minutes why they are top of the table with a converted try. But St Paul’s fought back and showed that they weren’t going to take this match lying down. Eight minutes later they responded with a try by Aaron Cleland and another in the 33rd minute by Connor Fullerton. Unfortunately neither were converted but St Paul’s had a 10-7 lead at half time.
Forest View started the second half much like the first with a try in the opening minutes. For the remainder of the second half St Paul’s struggled for field and ball possession and whilst their defensive effort was outstanding Forest View scored one more try with two minutes remaining on the clock to take the game 17-10.
Despite the loss the progress made by St Paul’s is evident and puts the team in a great position for the remaining matches in round two.
Result: 17-10 to Forest View
St Paul’s Under 16 vs Melville
18th June 2011
St Paul’s faced a strong opposition in difficult wet and windy conditions at Melville High School and played their best game of the season.
Playing into the wind St Paul’s defended with purpose creating numerous turnovers through great driving play and holding up Melville’s ball in the maul. The backs either ran hard from mid fields or kicked into space and made the opposition try and return the ball. Again effective tackling created turnovers.
While the score was 0-0 at half time St Paul’s were gaining some dominance. This was turned into points in the second half with Brody Rennie driving over the line after breaking through a ruck. This was followed by tries to Callum Brown and Hamish Burt from similar positions – rucks close to the Melville line. Josh Malpas converted two of the three tries.
This was a real team effort – the boys playing the team pattern and committing themselves in the tackle and in rucks and mauls.
Final score 19-0 to St Paul’s.
MVPs for this week were Logan Jakes, Brody Rennie and Hamish Burt.
St Paul’s Under 14 Rugby vs Matamata
18th June 2011
The St Paul’s Under 14's travelled to Matamata and despite good preparation had a patchy display which was punctuated with a plethora of penalties against us.
Joel Taylor starred with two tries and a kicking performance that would match any Super 15 performance. He converted four tries, two of which were scored out wide and a long distance penalty for a 100% kicking performance. We failed to function as a unit despite the Barry Honan drills and mauling practice during the week. Individual brilliance was watched rather than followed when players should have been chasing, supporting and securing ball. The team forgot about communicating the defensive line and some players ran too far to turn over ball. We got there 31-19 in the end but need to improve by about 200% to be competitive against Tauranga on Tuesday.
Tries to: Joel Taylor (2), Adam Ballantyne (1) Schneil Singh (1). Taylor: 4 conversions and 1 penalty.
Most valuable player: Joel Taylor
St Paul's 2nd XI versus Fairfield College
June 9th, 2011
This game turned out to be a gritty win against a burly side where solid team work and defensive play were the difference between win and lose.
St Paul’s got off to high powered start and took the lead in the first few minutes with a nicely slotted Penalty Goal by Harry Larkmin.
Fairfield responded quickly with a glimse of what their physicality could do if left unchecked getting in behind the St Paul’s defensive line with a try and easy conversion.
St Paul’s, determined to fight back, put together some good phases of play which resulted in Aaron Cleland getting over the line and Larkmin converting. Fairfield didn’t give up the fight and by half time they’d slotted their own penalty goal going into half time 10 apiece.
The second half saw line out after line out, scrum after scrum, multiple assaults on our try line all of which St Paul’s fought valiantly for.
A final penalty goal put away by Larkmin minutes before full time saw St Paul’s hold on and walk away with a 13-10 win.
St Paul’s 16A vs HBHS U15
June 11th, 2011
From the kick off St Paul’s struggled against a well organised and well drilled Boys High team. The usually effective line out was not functionally effectively and St Paul’s were under pressure in the scrums. The ball won from broken play and rucks was slow allowing Boys High to set their defense.
Two tries to Hamilton Boys and a penalty to Baxter Mackay saw the halftime score
12 -3.
Despite an improved performance in the second half, Boys High increased their lead to 20 – 3.
Most Valued Players for the day were Baxter Mackay, Creighton Winiata-Dunster and James Hunt.
St Paul’s Under 14’s versus Fraser
June 11, 2011
With 10 players going to Tihoi in a few weeks, St Paul’s Goal for the season has been to secure maximum competition points before they leave.
Its inspirational captain Adam Ballantyne got things off to a good start with his team talk followed by his deeds on the field. St Paul’s controlled the game much better than previous weeks with a sound kicking game. Good counter attacking combinations from the back three paid off with tries to Joel Taylor and Dillon Kelliher (2). The new tap penalty move 'The Prong' worked well with Arjun Singh peeling off for a superb try. The biggest improvement for the St Paul’s team has been in the area of attacking the ball thanks to a great session with Coach Gibbs.
Final score: St Paul's Collegiate School 22, Fraser High School 5.
Hedgehogs Black v HBHS
On Saturday June 11th, 2011 the Hedgehog Black team played Hamilton Boys High School in wet and muddy conditions. St Paul’s played well to their strengths; the forwards dominated up front giving the backs plenty of opportunity to run with the ball.
The team concentrated on short quick passes due to the wet conditions. By half time St Paul’s were 18-5 up – playing a very structured game.
During the halftime talk the coaches encouraged the players to experiment and to display their individual talent and flair.
Although the second half was not as well structured as the first, there were many exciting moments.
The final score was 39-17 win for St Paul’s.
Tries were scored by Ben Donaldson, Liam Hunter and Danny O’Hara.
Quadrangular Tournament 2011
4 – 6 June, 2011
Game 1 St Paul’s v Palmerston North Boys’ High School
With all 15 players back from last year’s 1st XV, Palmerston North Boys’ were always going to be a formidable opponent.
This proved to be the case, and while St Paul’s competed very well at set piece time (lineouts and scrums) and caused their midfield some problems with our powerful running, we were not able to build pressure at the breakdown for long enough periods, and missed too many tackles. Palmy Boys’ on the other hand were able to recycle the ball while going forward and this meant we were defending for much of the first half.
The halftime score was 17-3, the same as against Hamilton BHS, so we held some hope that we would be able to produce a similar 2nd half performance as we did in that game. St Paul’s applied a lot of pressure and were rewarded with a good try to Jonty Wood, making the score 22-10. And, if it wasn’t for 2 breakout tries, one from inside their own 22, then it would have been game on. Three more well taken tries to Palmy Boys’ late in the half meant they came out comfortable winners in the end 39-10.
Stand out players – Lachlan Cooper, Hadley May and Josh Tye
Game 2 St Paul’s v Whangarei BHS
The play off for 3rd and 4th kicked off at 9am. Having played a very physical game the previous day meant the team had to draw on its mental toughness to enable them to start well.
The team did start well, and with some very good tactical kicking by Josh Fawcett and excellent kick returns from Jonty Rae, we were able to camp down in Whangarei’s territory for long periods. A combination of their defence and a few dropped balls resulted in all our pressure only giving us a 7-5 lead at the break. The pleasing aspect of our first half try, scored by Josh Mann, was that it came as a result of good backing up and support play.
In the 2nd half Whangarei BHS kicked a penalty to lead 8-7, then a good break by Jonty Rae, led to him scoring a great try in the corner, giving us a 12-8 lead with 15 mins to go. Much of this time was spent defending our line.
It is testament to the tenacity of this team that they worked together as one to defend their line and repel numerous attacks from Whangarei. When the final whistle went we had held on to our 12-8 lead and finished the tourney with a very creditable 3rd placing.
Stand out players – Josh Mann, Josh Fawcett and Jonty Rae