College sport: Westlake success boost for Tall Blacks

The Tall Blacks' European tour holds more than passing interest at Westlake Boys' High School.

With five past or present pupils in the national team, the huge basketball contingent at the school are keenly following results with old boys Kirk Penney, Corey Webster, Jarod Kenny and Thomas Abercrombie joined in Europe by current star Rob Loe in playing on the international stage.

Loe has stepped up to the senior national side after an outstanding Under-19 World Championships with the Junior Tall Blacks.

It is no fluke the North Harbour school continues to make its mark.

From the time they won their first championships in 1985-86, WBHS has been to the forefront of the sport.

The five players now with the Tall Blacks are all products of the school's basketball institute which has been a part of the school's curriculum since 2000.

Last year Westlake won the Auckland under-15, under-17, under-19 and premier titles and remain on course for further success this year.

The basketball institute is overseen by deputy principal and first team coach Mark Jackson with Theuns Strydom as his assistant.

Westlake's hopes of winning another Auckland premier title received a timely boost in last Friday's round when previously unbeaten Rangitoto were upset 72-58 by newcomers Onehunga High.

In beating KBHS 71-69 in a cliff-hanger, WBHS closed to within two points of long-time rivals Rangitoto at the top of the table.

Making the most of home court advantage, Onehunga, with flashes of brilliance from their starting five of Dwight Leofo, Stacey Ili, Sam Latu, Jerome Tafa and Shea Ili, led for much of their game.

Leofo, with 21, and Stacey Ili (18) led the scoring for Onehunga while Isaac Fotu, with 23, led Rangitoto's scorers.

GYMNASTICS

An outstanding score of 17.8 on the beam laid the foundation for Jordan Rae's win in the international artistic grade at the Auckland SS championships at Papakura.

The Baradene pupil beat Diocesan's Brianna Mitchell in a tight battle.

In the boy's A grade, Brandon Field (Rosehill), with a strong floor score of 15.10, beat Westlake's Cameron Beeton for top honours despite Beeton's outstanding effort on the pommel horse.

RUGBY

It is being billed as the "Battle of the Bridge" but in this case it is just a short stretch of Mountain Rd which separates St Peters College from closest rivals Auckland Grammar who must cross the motorway to enter the "cage" for the keenly awaited clash of the Auckland 1A season on Saturday.

AGS go into the match with a perfect nine-from-nine record and on the back of a 100-0 romp over St Pauls on Saturday. St Peters had a come-from-behind 23-11 win over Aorere.

AGS ran in 16 tries in their romp against the out-gunned St Pauls side.

Leading 64-0 (nine tries to nil) at the break, after scoring their first try just two minutes into the game, the AGS coaching staff took the opportunity to rest some key players and give game time to their bench.

New Aorere College principal Pat Drumm had to watch as his new school succumbed to his old as St Peters came from 10-11 early in the second spell to win 23-11 to remain within a point of AGS.

Ben Paltridge gave St Peters a flying start when he scored in the opening minute but that brought an immediate response from David Mohi after a charge down. Bryn Hall, who had converted Paltridge's try, then added a penalty for a 10-5 lead which Jason Va'gafa reduced to 10-8 by halftime.

A second Va'gafa penalty early in the second half gave Aorere an 11-10 lead.

Hall responded in a like manner to give St Peters the advantage at 13-11 which was extended to 20-13 with a converted Ben Lam try. Hall added another penalty to complete the scoring.

MAGS kept their semifinal hopes alive with an 18-10 win over Kings.

Two first-half penalties from MAGS fullback and captain Albert Nikoro was all that separated the rivals at halftime.

A try from Ngataua Hukatai early in the second spell closed the gap but MAGS scored two tries from quickly taken penalties.

With Dillon Halaholo and substitute Sean Devine dotting down, MAGS stretched their lead to 18-5 which Kings reduced with a late try to their player of the day Sam Poole.

Sacred Heart hit back to beat Tamaki College 34-19 in another battle between the long-time rivals.

Grady Hunt gave Tamaki the early advantage when he crossed for a try. but Ben Lynch and Tino Nemani scored for Sacred Heart who went to the break 15-7 ahead.

Nemani scored a second try to further extend Sacred Heart's advantage and in a late flurry both teams continued to cross for good tries but with Sacred Heart having the last say.

NORTH HARBOUR

Down 7-10 at halftime, Rosmini stormed home to beat Massey 15-13 and close the gap at the top of the 1A table to just three points in the feature 11th round match at Rosmini on Saturday.

It was Massey's first loss of the season but they retain the championship lead thanks to their haul of bonus points.

Massey struck first when second-five Sam Aolele touched down within 30secs of the start of the game. Troy Stirling added the extras and kicked a penalty as Massey went to the break 10-7 up.

The home side hit back and in restricting the visitors to a solitary Stirling penalty in the second half, Rosmini, with tries to Gareth Anscombe and wing Patrick Clark complemented by an Anscombe penalty and conversion, got home by two points.

The two teams look certain to meet again in the championship final to be played as a curtainraiser to the North Harbour v Northland Air NZ Cup match on August 21.

It was almost as tight as Orewa held TGS to 11-10 in a game which could have gone either way.

Down 0-11 with 15 minutes to play, Orewa battled back with late tries to halfback John McCarthy and the outstanding Hunter Nelson. A conversion of either would have denied TGS who had dominated for the opening 50 minutes.

A well-taken Oliver Colmar-Jones try and two Connor McMahon penalties had TGS firmly in control.

Mahurangi College and Rangitoto played out a gripping 13-13 draw - the first of the season.

Second-five Manaia Rudolph and replacement No 8 Shaun Payne scored tries for the hosts with Rudolph adding a conversion. Their halfback Kyle Galloway was adjudged the Mahurangi player of the day.

Third-placed WBHS ran away to beat bottom-of-the-table Northcote 50-0, scoring eight tries.

Fullback Dylan Ferreira contributed half of his team's points with three tries and five conversions while lock Jarrod Lester and wing Rory McGahan crossed for two tries each.

There were more close encounters in 1B action with Kaipara edging Kristin 14-13 and Long Bay getting home 10-7 over a competitive Kingsway side.

SOCCER

Saturday could be a very good, very bad or so-so day for Auckland Grammar principal John Morris.

The former soccer international will be at MAGS at noon to watch his first soccer X1 play their old rivals before darting back to watch the AGS first rugby XV clash with St Peters in the defining match of the rugby season.

Soon the school's first soccer X1 will be at it again after being drawn to play in next month's semifinals of the Knockout Cup.

MAGS warmed up for Saturday's keenly awaited A1 clash with a 1-1 away draw with third-placed WBHS.

AGS beat Rangitoto 5-0 with Kelly Martin (2), Anton Lee, Josh Morrison and Andrew Wallace scoring. AGS led 3-0 at halftime.

At the other end of the table, Macleans scored their first win of the season, holding out Sacred Heart 2-1 with first-half goals for Mike Fahey and Sean Lovemore.

* www.asbcollegesport.co.nz