Aotea Rugby Premiers hold on to beat Havelock North

The victorious Aotea Rugby premiers at Rugby Park on Saturday.

After a comfortable win first up and an embarrassing hiding in the second in games away in the Hawke’s Bay, Aotea Rugby Premiers hit the ground running against Havelock North in their first competition home game at Rugby Park on Saturday, April 7.

Playing with a strong northerly tail win Aotea’s massive forward pack soon made its presence felt crashing up the ball in barnstorming runs which opponents Havelock North found hugely difficult to counter.

With Rangi Chase and Hoera Stephenson accurately kicking into the corners Havelock was trapped in its 22 resulting in two penalty goals kicked by Stephenson giving Aotea a six-point lead.

A constant barrage of Aotea forward drives began punching holes in Havelock’s defense, No 8 Bailey Johnson charging through five tackles to crash over taking the lead out to 11 points.

Aotea had complete scrum dominance, Havelock either conceding a penalty or being shoved off the ball and aggressive play at the breakdown added more opportunity for the forwards and backs to combine effectively.

Prop Gene Ropoama leads the charge supported by Bailey Johnson.

The backline had an armchair ride with great service from halfback Ethan Rosvall setting Rangi Chase, Hoera Stephenson, and Tama Petera away with both wingers Wharemako Paewai and Sam Jones having great runs supported by veteran fullback Trent Conway.

This added three more tries before half-time all of them converted by Stephenson, two from the side-line, to have Aotea 32-0 up after 40 minutes.

Turning into the wind Havelock attacked strongly but deprived of a scrum ball, struggled to break the Aotea defence and it was 10 minutes before it scored from a maul.

Lineouts were pretty even with No 7 Charlie Peato catching effectively to gain Aotea’s share but the pressure and the addition of the bench gave Havelock the upper hand spinning the ball wide to outstrip the tiring Aotea defence and scoring three seven-pointers.

With 10 minutes to play and the score 32-26, Aotea rallied and earned a penalty to widen the gap to nine points but Havelock scored again – this time unconverted – and a very nervous crowd in excess of 500 – watched as Aotea’s dominance of the scrum held out, a scrum penalty being the last scoring of the match to give Aotea a 38-31 victory.