Nelson College face gritty home loss

A defiant Nelson College first XV have faced their second loss of the season after going down to St Thomas of Canterbury 33-31.

In other results from the first XV competition, Waimea Combined Barbarians lost to Marlborough Boys College 36-17.

Nelson College was always going in for a tough game in their top-of-the-table clash with St Thomas of Canterbury.

In front of a live Sky TV broadcast and a passionate crowd at Trafalgar Park, the home side had it all to play for.

Their opposition were big and powerful in the forwards and had nimble backs that were fantastic finishers.

With both teams having just one loss coming into the game, neither was going to back down as they traded blows throughout.

The game's biggest lead was just seven points, with the momentum swinging back and forth.

It was clear that both squads had a lot of attacking firepower, with field position and possession going to decide the game.

The defence was top-notch but still spotty in patches, with holes opening from thin air.

Nelson College often looked to come out of their line in defence to spoil the attack, but it often left them staggered and on the back foot.

It looked like the home side had finished the job when lock Hennie Fa'avae scored down the blindside after a probing run by halfback Tylah Blake with five minutes left on the clock.

The try put them up by five points after St Thomas had fought back into the game through their big prop Richie Tupuailei crashing over for a try.

St Thomas weren’t to be outdone and scored off the back of a rolling maul that travelled at least 20 metres downfield before they rumbled it over with a series of pick-and-goes and one-off runners.

With time all but up on the clock, Nelson College kicked off and were able to charge down the clearing kick to give them one final chance.

Looking to rush it, they lost possession with a knock-on, and the game looked decided with a scrum to St Thomas.

Their eight took it off the back of the scrum and lost it in the tackle, giving Nelson College yet another chance, but they coughed it up looking to offload in the tackle.

Nelson College captain Dane Leppin says they didn’t play their best game out there.

“Our defence wasn’t quite there. We needed to bring some more physicality.”

He says they had looked to run down their big forwards by spreading the ball, but they strayed from the plan.

“We didn’t quite execute our plan. We had too many one-off runners through the middle, trying to take them on physically.

“The execution of a lot of things wasn’t there.”

He says Fletcher Hewitt-Smart at fullback had an outstanding game for the team.

“He played an awesome game, with good counter-attacking always finding holes.”

St Thomas of Canterbury 33 (Norman Palu, Richie Tupuailei 3 and Jack Coulthard tries; Oliver Lawry 4 conversions).

Nelson College 31 (Timoci Sauira, Matt Lowe, Fletcher Hewitt-Smart, Nelesoni Malaulau and Hennie Fa'avae tries; Zyon Ford 3 con).

HT Nelson College 14 St Thomas of Canterbury 19