Club rugby wrap

Defending Auckland champions Ponsonby dispatched Otahuhu 48-29 in an entertaining clash.

Recap of all the club action action throughout Auckland, Bay of Plenty, Counties Manukau and North Harbour.

AUCKLAND

Pakuranga are proving to be a solid second half team after holding out College Rifles 27-17 at Bell Park in round four Alan McEvoy Memorial Trophy action.

Pakuranga were top of the log before the game, but were stung early as Rifles turned over a lot of early ball, denying the pacy outsides the chance to create. Rifles' dominance and pressure was converted into two tries, to locks Milton Sikuea and Jarrod Bear.

That, allied to losing fullback Jarek Goebel to a knee injury, stifled any flow for Pakuranga, and some of the backline passing was sloppy.

But off of a solid scrum and several penalties in its favour, Pakuranga hauled their way back into the match, trailing just 10-6 at the break, and with clear instructions from coach Wayne Pivac about using the wind to claim field position.

Those words took immediate effect when left wing Jona Tuitoga scored after a blazing break by the ever-dangerous Charlie Piutau led to a chip, chase and fortuitous bounce. Then first five Derek Arnold feinted and ghosted through a gap to score. Halfback Bryn Hall, who goalkicked flawlessly, latched onto a centering chip by Piutau after Pakuranga had turned defence into attack for a spectacular try.

Pakuranga worked hard for their win, though there were three tries apiece in the end.

Pivac may well have won back a bottle of wine from his old Auckland player and now College Rifles coach Charles Riechelmann. The latter was not at the game though, as he is away helping Tongan Rugby World Cup preparations.

Elsewhere, University returned to the top of the table, crushing Waitemata 57-15. Lock Steven Luatua flew back from the capital and Blues' 23th man duties to score a double.

Defending champion Ponsonby dispatched Otahuhu 48-29 in an entertaining clash, while Grammar-Carlton also remained unbeaten with a tight 16-8 victory over Marist. Suburbs and Teachers-Eastern recorded their first wins of 2011, while Eden's resurgence continued, 22-19 over Peter Fatialofa's East Tamaki. Papatoetoe stayed in the top four by beating South Auckland rivals Manukau Rovers 45-11.

BAY OF PLENTY

Rangataua's defeat of competition leaders Whakarewarewa, has set up a three team race for the Baywide Premier first round trophy, with two games remaining in the first round.

After a slow start to the season Rangataua continued their renaissance, when they inflicted Whakarewarewa's second loss of the season, at Te Ariki Park in the heart of the Western Bay of Plenty.

A six nil lead to Rangataua at the break, set up a second half where both sides ran in three tries apiece. With plenty of home crowd sideline support, Rangataua got home 26-20, to move the Western Bay side into third place in the first round title chase.

Lurking a solitary point behind Whakarewarewa, are defending Premier champions Tauranga Sports, who ran riot against Te Puna, running in 13 tries on their way to an 87-10 victory.

The titleholders' victory was built upon distributing the ball out wide. Three tries apiece to Tauranga Sports wingers John Stewart and Byron McGuigan, with halfback Lewis Hancock also grabbing a trifecta of touchdowns, was the catalyst to victory.

Opotiki had a real arm wrestle with Rotoiti in the Eastern Bay, before emerging with a 15-10 victory, to move into fourth on the points ladder. Mount Maunganui came from behind, with Paul Tietjens crashing over in the dying minutes of the game to defeat Te Puke Sports 30-28. Whakatane Marist and Waikite battled to a 22 all draw.

COUNTIES MANUKAU

After an extremely slow start to the season sitting in bottom spot for the first part of the competition, Patumahoe have found some good form in recent weeks with their win over Ardmore Marist on Saturday being their best performance this season.

Patumahoe completely outplayed Ardmore Marist in the forwards to secure their 40-11 victory. Leading by 16-6 at halftime, Patumahoe kept the pressure on in the second spell and stepped up their forward effort.

Complete dominance at set phase laid a solid platform and highlighted a committed effort. A hat-track to Bundellu Aki and a 100 per cent kicking performance from Sean Ready ensured Patumahoe's scoreboard would keep ticking over.

Playing at home, Onewhero look good in patches, but struggled to put anything together in the backs going down to Pukekohe 38-7. Picking up the four try bonus point right on half time, the 24-7 lead Pukekohe took into the break was never going to be chased down.

While the Onewhero forward pack toiled hard and David Bason offered control and good attacking runs from halfback, it was not enough to compete with Pukekohe who has captured top spot on the table again on points differential.

Bombay put up a good effort against Karaka before going down 19-17. Leading 17-6, Bombay looked good for the upset win but could not hold off a strong finishing Karaka team. While Karaka's effort was highlighted by errors and missed one on one tackles, Bombay were committed with Tony Pulu proving hard to tackle. For Karaka, first five Baden Kerr continued his fine run of form scoring all his teams points.
In the other game, Waiuku secured a 25-15 win over Manurewa. While both teams scored three tries apiece, the superior kicking from Waiuku's Baden Morey got his team home.

NORTH HARBOUR

The change in the usual pecking order was further emphasised on Saturday when Silverdale ousted North Shore from the top of the premiership table with a 29-23 win.

Wing Brad Abraham starred for Silverdale with three of the side's four tries.

Silverdale's win was accompanied by equally impressive performances by Western Pioneers, who scored an exciting, last minute 28-24 win over Harbour's most successful club, Takapuna, and Massey over-running Glenfield 53-22.

That means the three top clubs at present in the competition, with just one point separating them, are Silverdale, Massey and Western, all of whom are clubs from outside the Shore.

Silverdale (in 2003) and Massey (1993, 2004-05) have been Harbour champions, but Western, newcomers to the competition this year after having previously competed as Helensville and Kumeu, have never been successful.

As they showed with the win over Takapuna, they are a dangerous combination, which might well be in the reckoning in the play-off stages. They are far from a finished product, and some of their lineout work against Takapuna's experienced Chris Smith and Shane Neville, in particular, was shoddy. But they have plenty of attacking potential.

Shore's loss dropped them back to fourth, just two points ahead of Northcote, who began to look more like the side which won last year's championship with an easy 58-3 win over bottom side, Mahurangi. The Warkworth-based club became the only side yet to win after East Coast Bays finally had some luck after a series of narrow defeats by beating Marist 20-13.

- NZ HERALD