Dannevirke Sports Rugby Colts draw with CHB

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 7-0 lead 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.