RUGBY - Northland blast Valley title hopes to bits

A TRY-SCORING effort from captain Jordan Wikitera helped the Northland under-18 rugby team end their representative season on a high when they beat Thames Valley 27-0 at the weekend.
Valley, who beat Auckland the previous week, were set to win the under-18 B division title if they downed Northland, and were fired-up for a big effort.
Northland, however, have improved over the season and started all over Thames Valley, scoring two quick tries, the first after four minutes down the left wing to Michael Davys and again after six minutes from a charge-down to Jimmy Horsford to lead 10-0.
The game was being played at a fast pace, with Northland clearly having a superior backline but the forward battle was quite even.
Thames Valley had a very good scrum and Northland started to give away penalties, to keep the score 10-0 at the break.
The Northland coaches stressed the need for discipline and Horsford scored again early in the second half to stretch the lead to 15-0.
Wikitera then scored from a pick-and-go close to the line in the 16th minute, his effort converted by Brodie Marron to put Northland into a commanding lead at 22-0.
Northland ran on the replacements in the second half, with the speed of the game taking a toll.
Replacement lock Jordan Holford scored after a number of attacking phases were put together by the now dominant Northland team in the 33rd minute to seal a well-earned victory over competition favourites 27 points to nil.
In other age-grade games, the Northland under-20s lost to Waikato 27-7, the under-16s went down to Thames Valley 59-3 and the under-14s were thrashed by Auckland 63-3.
The Northland schoolgirls side lost to Bay of Plenty 43-21.