Want to know who the next Beauden Barrett or Kieran Read will be? In his new weekly column for the Herald, schoolboy rugby expert Herschel Fruean singles out the best First XV matches of the
weekend, and some rising stars to watch. Fruean will travel New Zealand looking for the best talent the country has to offer, preview the big games every Friday, provide a wrap of all the results on Sunday, and rank the top 15 First XV teams (based on their performances throughout the season) every Monday morning.
The 1A final has always been a tough game, and when King's College and St Kentigern College battled on the turf at Eden Park, they didn't let spectators down.
King's claimed a hard-fought 29-22 win over St Kent's, led by an influential performance from first five-eighth Aidan Morgan.
Morgan scored within the first 5 minutes of the contest behind a forward pack that got going early. The pressure from the King's forwards at the breakdown saw Morgan get the ball in space to get across for the first try after a strong fend. He was in the action again just moments later, offloading to halfback Dayton Iobu who scored under the posts. It saw King's go up 14-0 inside of eight minutes and many began to feel like it was going to be one-way traffic for the full 70 minutes. However, a fortuitous try to lock Lopeti Faifua saw St Kent's get on the board inside the opening 20 minutes.
![Israel Otunuku of King's College. Photo / Supplied](https://www.nzherald.co.nz/resizer/v2/2RFASSCCK5W5CIIAYZSEUTH2EM.jpg?auth=0cb8080e40b4c81e815fb17b6d9df2e79294f6bfeaf795bc5c9b6d7c4b500b62&width=16&height=11&quality=70&smart=true)
However, tries to Meihana Grindlay and Israel Otunuku extended the lead further and at the break King's led 29-5.