Mixed results for local first 15 rugby in season openers

Nelson College have started their first 15 campaign with a convincing 36-13 win over St Andrews College.

Meanwhile, Waimea Combined Barbarians drew with Rangiora High School in a 28-28 thriller.

Despite fielding 12 debutants, the Nelson College team played with maturity beyond their years.

They were able to absorb the pressure on defence and were clinical on the attack, being unlucky not to have scored several more tries.

Nelson College number 8 Matt Lowe had a dominant performance, with strong ball running from the back of the scrum and a high work rate around the park.

Despite struggling at scrum time, with STAC putting the shove on, Nelson College were better in open play.

Head coach Jono Phillips says he was impressed with prop Sione Mafi’s performance.

“I thought he had an immense first half. He’s our boy down from Wellington, our big number three.”

Tyler Blake also impressed at halfback with the way he organised the team and ran play, Jono says.

“We targetted the first half, just the accuracy required to keep the pressure on them, and  I thought we did that really well.

“St Andrews is such a proud rugby school and to keep them to five points in the second half. . . I was really proud of the defensive effort.”

Jono was also impressed with how the team banded together on defence.

“This early in the season to see that sort of unitedness of the boys and how they went about it is very cool.

“You know you’re a united team when you defend well.”

At Waimea, a wayward last-minute penalty kick by first five-eighth Ryan Flowers saw them finish their first game with the scores tied at 28-a-piece.

A late resurgence from Rangiora, with two tries in the final 20 minutes, saw them claw back the Barbarians’ early lead.

Rangiora scored 21 unanswered points to put them into the lead with ten minutes to play.

A 21-7 halftime advantage wasn’t enough as they could only add 7 points to their total in the second stanza with a try to James Stang in the dying stages of the game.

The Barbarians finished the game beating against the Rangiora defence after earning a turn over, culminating with a penalty just to the left of the posts about 30 metres out from the line.

Barbarians head coach Marc Hunter says they let themselves down by letting their lead slip.

“We’re happy with the first half, obviously we had a bit of a lead but we allowed Rangiora to get back into the game.

“We didn’t get enough ball and spent too much time on defence.”

He says with 10 debutants, including nine in the forward pack impressed with their maturity.

“It’s pretty much a new forward pack, so we’ve got a lot of work to do with our boys up front but they will get better and better.

“It’s a big step up coming to this sort of level of rugby.”