The Dannevirke Sports and Central Hawke's Bay Colts at Rugby Park after their draw on Saturday.
The Dannevirke Sports and Central Hawke's Bay Colts at Rugby Park after their draw on Saturday.
In an excellent curtain-raiser to the Hunter Shield match at Dannevirke's Rugby Park Dannevirke Sports Club Colts and Central Hawke's Bay Colts fought out a 12-12 draw in a pre-season match.
Despite having only had one practice the CHB colts gelled well in the first 30 minutes taking a 7-0lead with a crash-over maul try after 10 minutes.
Fullback Aaron Herbert was a threat from the back.
Dannevirke began to find its rhythm with forwards and backs starting to link well but handling errors and penalties kept the team scoreless until a forward drive yielded a try similar to that of CHB's try.
The remainder of the half was pretty much stalemate but very entertaining for a large crowd until a brilliant solo kick-through and catch had Quinn Fogharty from CHB in the corner, giving CHB the half-time lead at 12-5.
Dannevirke tried hard in the second half but frequently lost possession in the tackle on attack. Sustained pressure, however, eventually told and after a forward drive Dannevirke scored and converted to make it 12-12.
Try as they might, neither team could add more points as the game see-sawed from end to end. Coaches Aaron Mitchell and Kelly Webber would be pleased to see their team front up after a long wait in the season and agreed a draw was a fair reflection of the game.
Dannevirke Colts start their Manawatu season on July 4 so there is more time to mould a team with huge potential into a very competitive side.
