Club rugby: Pirongia make top five for championship round

Pirongia fullback Weston Craig ran 90 metres to score an intercept try against Te Rapa at St Andrews Park. Photo / Paula Hobbs

Pirongia ground out a well-deserved 24-17 victory over Te Rapa at St Andrews Park on Saturday to confirm their top-five status for the next round.

Outstanding line defence throughout the game laid the platform, and when on attack they were able to score at regular intervals. After an even start, Te Rapa opened the scoring with a penalty goal, but Pirongia hit back not long after with a well-taken try to winger Daniel Belk in the corner.

A great sideline conversion from Weston Craig increased Pirongia’s lead to 7-3.

Pirongia held the territory and possession for the next 10 minutes but were unable to turn this into points.

Te Rapa then had a period of attack and came close on a number of occasions, with their large forward picking and going.

When the ball was spun wide the overlap was created and it looked like a try would be scored, but Craig read the play perfectly and swooped on the last pass, intercepting it to run 90 metres, scoring untouched.

With the simple conversion, Pirongia went into the halftime break with a deserved 14-3 lead.

Te Rapa started the second half with more determination and they camped inside the Pirongia 22, but through determined defence couldn’t cross the line.

They were rewarded when their larger pack started to dominate at scrum time and from a third five-metre scrum, and the Pirongia pack going backwards, the referee awarded a penalty try to close the gap to 14-10. This spurred Pirongia into action and with fresh reserves coming on and the pack gaining parity again, Belk was able to score his second try.

First five Armyn Sanders placed a well-judged cross-field kick, and Belk outjumped the Te Rapa defender and broke out of a tackle to score. This increased Pirongia’s lead to 19-10. Te Rapa then closed the gap to two points with a converted try.

Pirongia increased their lead nearly immediately with another well-taken try.

The forwards sucked in the Te Rapa defenders and the ball was spun wide for Graham Wade to score. The conversion went wide leaving the score at 24-17 with 10 minutes to go.

Te Rapa stormed back onto attack and again camped inside Pirongia’s 22, but the Pirongia defence was just too good.

A knock-on from Te Rapa signalled the end of the game, Pirongia winning 24-17 and taking four competition points as well as the bonus point for scoring four tries.

Pirongia have confirmed their place in the top five, sitting in fourth place with one week to go of round one. Sanders controlled play well from first five, while the loose forwards Andrew Charleston, Stan Rhind and Tom Poole were a constant threat on attack and defended stoutly.

Daniel Webber was strong on defence and Belk was fearsome, making some bone-crunching tackles as well as taking every opportunity on attack.

This was a 22-man effort and the reserves made an immediate impact on the game.

Replacement prop Liam Hobbs shored up the scrum and was devastating on defence, driving back player after player. There are three games this week at Pirongia Domain with the senior A and B sides playing Southern United and the Colts facing Fraser Tech.