Nelson College still unbeaten after scrappy win

A length of the field runaway try was the turning point as Nelson College held onto their unbeaten record.

After battling back and forth against St Thomas of Canterbury, number 8 Teina Thompson picked up the ball and ran the length of the park to turn the tides for Nelson College.

Having trailed 12-14 before the try, which also denied St Thomas points as they looked poised to score, the momentum changed as Nelson College piled on 28 unanswered points to end the game.

A sloppy first half marked with an abundance of handling errors saw both teams struggle to mount attacks.

Instead, flashes of brilliance saw tries scored, with winger Mikey Morrision dotting it down after Nelson College found their feet to mount their first real attack of the game.

In back-and-forth action, St Thomas would score to level the game before an unconverted try to flanker Saumaki Saumaki gave the home team a short-lived lead through the halftime break.

With the game lacking flow, St Thomas would strike first after the break as they caught the defence asleep on the blind side, taking the lead in the process with a conversion through the uprights.

The visitors looked like they might extend that lead as they worked their way downfield to batter away at the try line, but Teina’s runaway try was the swing in momentum with a textbook definition of a 14-point try.

Nelson College would go on to score three more tries, to  Samuela Takapu, Kobe Brownlee and  Linton Laiseni, which were all converted.

With St Thomas sitting second on the table coming into the game, Nelson College have now delivered wins over the rest of the top four in the competition.

Captain Harry Inch says it was a tough game back after a gruelling Quadrangular week.

“They’re second on the table for a reason. We knew it was going to be hard work.

“That first half, we were forcing it a bit too much. There’s a lot of good learnings to take from the game.”

Harry says it was positive to see how the team fell back on their structures and started to see results.

“We went back to playing what we know, which is positive attacking footy.

“That [runaway try] was a bit of a moment of brilliance.”

He also wanted to congratulate Tawhiao Whitham-TeKotua, who was presented his cap after the game after coming off the bench.