Rugby: Old Boys stand tall

A late try to Hadlee Matson dented Marist's hopes of securing the final Southern Districts Premier playoff place.

A desperate Old Boys had been pushing hard to retake the lead before the final whistle at Kensington Park on Saturday and when the ball went wide to Matson, the winger burrowed through the scrambling cover defence to level the scores.

The two teams had to settle for a 31-all draw after the conversion attempt from the sideline by Harry Darkins slid wide, leaving both sides in a four-way wrangle for the playoffs.

Old Boys coach Boyd Matson was thrilled to see his nephew score the try and admitted they were a bit lucky to earn three points from the game.

"It was a real see-saw battle out there and Marist are just as desperate as us to get that fourth spot," he said.

Old Boys had a great start with Troy Cullen scoring off the back of a rolling maul before tries by Saxon Samuels and Troy Gilbert saw them ahead 19-3 at the end of the first quarter. Marist began to disrupt Old Boys' set-piece after lock Jeff Kalemani was sinbinned and thanks to their speedsters out wide they came roaring back into the game to lead 24-19 at the turn.

The see-saw battle continued in the second spell with Matt Harrison scoring the bonus point try with Marist down to 14 men after Matt Kaye was sent for a spell, before Matson secured the draw seconds from the end.

Old Boys have arguably the toughest run into the finals with matches against Mid Western and Mid Northern ahead of them but as their coach said while there is life there's hope.

"If we can display the kind of fighting spirit we showed at the end of the game on Saturday for the entire 80 minutes next week then there's no reason why we can't win," Boyd Matson said.

The result gave Kamo the opportunity to overtake Marist but a disappointing 12-17 loss to Hora Hora sees them still trailing their Whangarei rivals by two points.

Hora Hora played to their strengths and created chances out wide to score their tries and maintain their slim chances of making the playoffs.

The win gave the Hora Hora Rugby Club even more reasons to celebrate after their women's team was crowned Northland Champions with a 24-10 win over Moerewa at Toll Stadium.

The two teams played a great game of football with the game in the balance until well into the second half. Earlier City had accounted for Kaikohe 52-12 to take third place.

In other men's premier grade matches Wellsford made certain of a home semifinal by beating second-placed Mid Western 27-23 in another close game.

Mid Northern, who comfortably beat the Western Sharks 47-10, move into second place on points differential, eight point behind Wellsford and level with Mid Western with Marist a further five points adrift. In the other premier match Hikurangi effectively handed Otamatea the competition's wooden spoon, breaking a seven match losing streak, with a 36-17 win.