Poverty Bay fullback Ricardo Patricio finishes off an early contender for the individual try of the season in the Bay’s Heartland Championship clash with Mid Canterbury at the Oval on Saturday.
With around 20 minutes of the match remaining, Patricio fielded a clearing kick a couple of metres inside the Bay 10-metre line. He proceeded to chip kick the ball over incoming Mid Canterburyplayers, got the bounce, stepped inside one defender and left another two smelling his fumes as he put on the afterburners and sprinted to the try line for a five-pointer he will never forget. It was one of a try double for Patricio but wasn’t enough as the southerners went home with a 23-20 victory.
Ruatōria’s Whakarua Park is the focus this Saturday as the eighth-placed Bay head north to take on third-placed Ngāti Porou East Coast in a local derby in which Heartland points, the Bill Osborne Taonga and the PJ Sayers Cup will be up for grabs.
The Coast have held the Taonga — the Ranfurly Shield of Heartland rugby — since beating the Bay 12-10 in Gisborne in September of last year. Saturday’s game kicks off at 2pm and will be preceded by a North Island Heartland women’s game between Tūranga Wāhine and Ngāti Porou East Coast Hamoterangi and an under-18 wāhine clash between NPEC and Tūranga.
