College sport: Grammar, MAGS revive rivalry

The long soccer rivalry between Auckland and Mt Albert Grammar goes back on the line at Napier's Park Island ground next week.

Kevin Fallon-coached MAGS will defend their Lotto Sports premier title but expect AGS to again be right in the race.

Their scheduled second clash in the Auckland A1 championship, which was postponed a couple of weeks ago with AGS being granted dispensation in having a number of players on international duty, will be played later. In their earlier clash, at AGS, they finished 1-1.

In last year's national final MAGS beat Palmerston North BHS 1-0 with Josh Smith, who is back this year, scoring.

Fallon expects the Manawatu side to again be right in contention.

"I watched them win the central North Island Super Eight tournament in Gisborne when they beat New Plymouth in the final. Nick Roydhouse scored all three and will no doubt be a factor again."

Teams from outside Auckland have traditionally struggled with most finals in the past 10 years being all-Auckland affairs.

"I expect Auckland Grammar and Westlake will again be right up there," said Fallon.

But one quirk of history is against Fallon and his team.

Winners four times in the nine years he has been in charge of the school's soccer academy, Mt Albert have yet to successfully defend their title. They won in 1999, 2001, 2003 and 2005.

"We can't seem to win in the even years," said Fallon. "We only made the final once - in 2000 - and lost."

* The soccer championship will again be a feature of the annual winter tournament week.

St Peter's will defend their title at the lower-tier Rex Dawkins Cup soccer tournament at Keith Hay Park after failing to win a place in the 16-team Napier tournament.

Teams from all over the country will square off in a variety of sports with plenty of interest in all codes.

* Auckland Grammar and Westlake BHS, who meet in this afternoon's inter-city final, will lead the Auckland challenge for hockey's Rankin Cup in Christchurch.

WBHS lost last year's final 2-0 to King's who will defend their title. AGS finished 12th.

* Auckland teams will be looking to do better than last year when they head to Napier for the premier girls Federation Cup hockey tournament.

The northern challenge will be spearheaded by Diocesan and WGHS who square-off in tomorrow's inter-city final at AGS.

Wairarapa College will defend the title they won 2-1 over St Margarets in Whangarei last year while Diocesan will be out to improve on their sixth placing. WGHS and St Cuthbert's drew 1-1 in the 7th place play-off.

* The cream of North Island netball talent will be in Mt Maunganui (upper) and Napier (lower) for their annual tournaments and the country's best league talent will play the national tournament in Auckland with the first and last days at Mt Smart Stadium and the rest of the week at Cornwall Park.

Auckland champions St Paul's take local hopes into the six-team competition. They are backed up by Manurewa High, Southern Cross Campus and Otahuhu College as they attempt to withstand the challenge from Wellington's Wainuiomata College and Christchurch's Aranui High.

* Auckland schools are seeded to succeed in the national squash championships in Wellington.

Fresh from their victory in the Auckland premier boys final, AGS take the top seeding from MAGS with King's seeded third. EGGS, beaten by WGHS for the Auckland title, are top seeds as they attempt, like AGS to defend their title.

St Cuthbert's, third in Auckland, are the second seeds in Wellington.

* The basketballers, after another round of premier matches on Friday night, have their tournaments at North Harbour and in Rotorua while the best golfers will head to Wellington (boys) and Cromwell (girls).

Hockey

Westlake schools will chase a double in the finals of the annual inter-city competitions this week.

Tonight at Auckland Grammar, WBHS will meet AGS in the boys final while tomorrow, at the same venue, WGHS meet Diocesan.

Westlake won through to the boys final with a 2-0 win over King's College.

Westlake went straight on to attack and, capitalising on a defensive error, went ahead when Mark Nicholson pounced on to a loose ball and scored. But King's clawed their way back but could not unlock the strong WBHS defence.

Captain Joseph Bartholomew smashed home a second goal to book a place in the final.

AGS won through with a Shay Neal goal to beat Massey HS.

Diocesan repeated the win they had scored over St Cuthbert's in the local competition in last week's semifinal, but it was much tighter than their earlier clash which they won 6-1.

This time there was only a goal in it with Sarah Randell sweeping home the winner in the first half.

In the other semifinal WGHS beat long-time rivals Rangitoto 2-0.

Netball

Provided they get through the penultimate round on Saturday, Rangitoto and WGHS will meet in a classic showdown in the final round-robin series on August 29.

Both maintained their season-long unbeaten records in ninth round action with Rangitoto too strong for Kristin winning 43-15, and WGHS almost as impressive in beating neighbours Carmel 36-13.

Overcoming the wet court and slippery ball, Westlake attackers Kelly Thorne (goal shoot) and Courtney Mita (goal attack) were too strong for the Carmel defence.

As the game progressed, the weather took a turn for the worse but Westlake soldiered on in heavy rain to score 10 goals to Carmel's three.

A strong defensive effort complemented the work up front to ensure Westlake's ninth straight win.

The Auckland premier championship is also a cliff-hanger. AGGS take a four point lead into Saturday's final round-robin match over MAGS who have lost once this season.

Victory for MAGS would give them the honours, however, as they have a better goal difference than AGGS +162 to +157.

Rugby

It went right to the wire before the semifinalists in the Auckland 1A championship were found.

While AGS and Kings were assured of the top two spots, four teams chased the other two.

KBHS quickly sealed their place by beating bottom-placed Otahuhu College 33-12 ending any chance St Peter's had of making the top four.

The real battle was at Mt Albert Grammar where the home side needed to beat De La Salle to win through.

In front of a large crowd, MAGS, who had made most of the play, edged to a 6-0 halftime lead.

That was short-lived as early in the second spell, the visitors hit back with No 8 Murphy Leilua scoring a try from a well-executed lineout drive. Faiga Vaega added the extras with his sideline conversion for 7-6.

MAGS, who again went in front with a penalty five minutes from time, seemed set to hold on until Vaega won the match with a drop goal.

De La Salle are away to AGS, who beat Tamaki College 24-0, in one semifinal on Saturday while Kings are at home to KBHS in the other.

It was a good win for AGS against Tamaki who, despite their lowly position on the points table, had lost only one game by more than five points before their final outing.

King's finished their round-robin play with a 22-3 win over St Kentigern snatching a bonus point by scoring four tries.

In the North Harbour semifinals, also on Saturday, Massey are at home to WBHS.

Rosmini, who overcame a tentative start to their season before storming home to finish a point behind Massey, have home advantage in their clash with neighbours Takapuna Grammar.