Rugby league: Marist join trio on top

Marist Brothers continued to take the heavyweights by storm in the Whangarei City and Districts Rugby League competition, when they pipped Bay Slayers 14-20.

The Slayers were leading the table after round four with eight points, but will have to share the top berth with Marist, last year's premiers Hikurangi Stags and competition newcomers Kaitaia Falcons, who also had wins during Saturday's fifth round.

The Falcons dominated their game against Hora Hora and won convincingly, 40-19, while Takahiwai narrowly escaped an Otaua onslaught, defeating them 40-36 at Takahiwai Domain. Hikurangi found their form again after an upset loss to Wairoa Bulls the previous weekend, and beat the Hokianga Pioneers 58-28, while there was nothing in the game between Wairoa and Moerewa Tigers at Dargaville, with the rivals drawing 22-22.

A new draw has been confirmed after poor player numbers led to the Portland Panthers' shock withdrawal from the senior competition.

Portland, one of the competition's heavyweights, notified the WCDRL board ahead of round four, as they were unable to gather enough players for their match against Kaitaia, and they had already defaulted to City Knights in round three.

Teams defaulting three games consecutively or four games in a season are deemed to be out of the competition, and things did not look like they would get any better this season for Portland.

Portland coach Craig Bird noted his side had been touch-and-go on numbers since the season began.

In the letter to the WCDRL board, Portland stated that while their senior team would not participate this season, their junior grades would still compete.

Board chairwoman Juanita Hool said the club would rebuild as they have done before. "The board have every confidence they will return to senior football again in the near future," Hool said.

She added the board could appreciate that it was a big decision for Portland and Bird to withdraw the senior team.

"In making that decision it had at least given the competition certainty for them and the rest of the teams moving forward. It obviously had a huge impact on every other club that remained in the competition, so there was the need to revise the draw. It meant that where a club would have previously had a bye each weekend, we now had an even number of teams in the competition and had already completed four rounds."