Club Rugby: In-form Williams puts the boot into Grammar Carlton

Auckland
Brett Williams was again the match winner for Ponsonby when they beat Grammar Carlton 30-23 yesterday. The experienced first five-eighths scored 20 of the Ponies' 30 points with his boot - two dropped goals, four penalties and a conversion.

Williams recently missed four matches with a hamstring injury but, on his return last week, he steered Ponsonby to a 27-13 win over University with a try, two conversions and a penalty.

Grammar Carlton led the second round championship going into yesterday's matches but now Ponsonby and University, 48-6 winners over East Tamaki yesterday, share the lead, one point clear of recently-promoted Waitemata, with Marist and Grammar Carlton a further point back in fourth place.

University outclassed East Tamaki, scoring seven tries in their comfortable win. East Tamaki went into the match with successive wins over Ponsonby and Marist but had no answer to University.

The University pack laid the foundation for the big win, with hooker Donny Latu (two), prop Semisi Telefoni and lock John Vea all scoring tries.

Waitemata edged Waitakere City 10-5 in a close match, with each side scoring just one try. Auckland prop Nick White was the difference, landing a conversion and a penalty for Waitemata.

Suburbs are finding the going tough back in the premier one competition. They were overwhelmed 66-7 at Liston Park by a Marist side which ran in 10 tries. Pakuranga continued their progress up the table with a close 18-15 win over Otahuhu.

North Harbour
Lock and captain Damian Albert capped a remarkable Marist comeback in North Harbour premier club rugby yesterday with a last-minute try to give his side a 35-30 win over Northcote. With about 25 minutes left, Marist trailed Northcote 30-9 and seemed headed for a defeat which would have seen the side displaced from the championship lead.

But, over the final quarter, Marist began to put more reliance on their outstanding backline - Rudi Wulf at centre, an impressive Nick Blincoe on the wing and Tua Saseve, coming from the bench, produced four tries.

Albert got the last to give himself a double as Marist finished with maximum points to increase their lead by one over Massey, the champions of the past two seasons.

Massey overpowered North Shore 19-5 to move to a clear second place on the table. Takapuna uncorked some of their best rugby of the season in the opening quarter to jump away to a 26-0 lead over East Coast Bays.

Jon Elrick, moved out to second five-eighths, was in sparkling form to score two tries and add three conversions and halfback Jon Volckman was also an effective runner. Bays gained a try right on the break and, with the game losing shape, there was no scoring in the second spell.

Silverdale and Mahurangi kept their top-eight hopes alive with 27-12 and 24-21 wins over Kumeu and Glenfield respectively.

Counties
Patumahoe celebrated a rare triumph for the country clubs after beating Ardmore Marist 13-6 in yesterday's Counties Manukau premier final at Pukekohe Stadium.

Both sides battered each other in a game where excellent defence meant the scoreline was low.

Patumahoe created more chances in the first half and opened the scoring with a penalty to fullback Pugsy Arthur.

However, scoring opportunities after that were limited and penalties missed by young Ardmore Marist first-five Dean Cummings, who entered the game with a thigh injury, proved crucial.

The second half started with Patumahoe leading 3-0 but Ardmore Marist centre Mark Lawson took over as kicker and levelled the scores.

The game see-sawed for the next 30 minutes, with both teams unable to convert chances into points.

The winning of the match came when Patumahoe's New Zealand under-19 representative Male Sa'u barged over between the posts after beating several tacklers with some wonderful footwork.

Arthur converted but Ardmore Marist struck back with another Lawson penalty and the score was 10-6 with five minutes to go. Patumahoe sealed the championship with a second Arthur penalty.

In Premier 2, Papakura had a 24-16 win over Bombay.