Capital takes sword to Northern boys despite better effort

One week on from their initial hitout, Northern Swords coach Revell Neal is happier with his team's second performance in New Zealand Rugby League's National Competition.
The team had anticipated a bruising encounter against Wellington Orcas at Porirua Stadium yesterday and they got just that, suffering a golf-score 78-0 loss in the process.
Despite the huge margin, Neal said he was happy his team had heeded what he had preached at training during the week.
"It was a definite turn-around for the boys from last week against Counties Manukau, even though the score doesn't reflect it," Neal said.
The Swords went down 86-10 against Counties, but made a much stronger start against Wellington. They held the well-drilled side from scoring for the latter part of the first half and trailed 24-0 at halftime.
"The boys played a good first half, where we had the odd lapse in our play - a missed tackle here and there. And then the score blew out at the end, our fitness letting us down."
Neal rated the undefeated Wellington side on par with Counties, without the individual player flare Counties boasted, and he was happy the Swords had put up a fight in the first half, and shown improvement."
The Swords picked up a few injuries during the clash, with 18-year-old centre Jordan Katene seriously damaging his finger in a tackle, dislocating it and ripping it open. Katene remained in Wellington last night to have the finger operated on, while the rest of the team travelled north. Prop Logan Pocklington also injured his shoulder and there were a number of niggling injuries to several players.
Neal and the Swords are now looking forward to further improvements on the paddock, when they take on South Island in front of a home crowd at Jubilee Park, in Whangarei next Sunday at 3pm.
The Northern Swords 15s and 17s struggled against the gutsy Wellington age-group players.
After making a promising start to their National Competition campaign last weekend against Counties Manukau, the Swords 15s were trampled on by the more experienced Wellington by a whopping 72-0 as their defensive line tired.
In contrast, the 17s turned around their 98-0 loss to Counties in Kaikohe with a much improved performance against Wellington.
The host side got off to a solid start, racking up 42 points before the Swords nabbed their first try.
Swords skipper Riki Toby dotted down with 25 minutes to go, followed by Angus Murray, who crossed the chalk for the Swords' second and final try of the match.
Something clicked in the side during the final 25 minutes of the game. The visitors kept their structure and defended solidly to restrict Wellington to scoring just 10 more pointsand a final 52-10 scoreline.
The Swords could be proud of the effort they put into the match, along with their positive attitude.
The 15s and 17s also play the respective South Island teams next Sunday at Jubilee Park ahead of the Premiers' match.