13 June - Match Reports

Match Reports – Saturday 13 June

Glenfield 18 Silverdale 12
North Shore 48 Northcote 3
Massey 51 Western 17
East Coast Bays 38 Takapuna 17

East Coast Bays celebrated flanker Zak Judge's 100th premier match for the club with a 38-17 win over old rivals Takapuna and in the process retained the Les Pearce Memorial Shield.

The opensider, who has also played 15 games for North Harbour, joins a select group of centurions at Bays, who also honoured Matt Cochrane for his 25th, blazer game.Bays scored six tries to two, but only really asserted their dominance towards the latter stages of the match. The win keeps Bays in touch with the coveted top four, while putting seven points between them and Takapuna.

Massey, perhaps stung by losing their perch at the head of the log, crushed Western Pioneers 51-17, the eight tries including braces to Kuki Moala, Niko Ratumaitavuki and Rhema Sagote.

Massey were quick to show their intentions, putting on both a strong defensive and attacking display to jump out quickly on the scoreboard and then keep the pressure on - coasting away to a 34-point win. Western No 8 Jimmy Tuivaiti, fiancé of Silver Fern netballer Cathrine Latu, was honoured at the after-match for bring up 100 premier games for the club two weeks ago.

For the third week in a row, Silverdale showed that their potential belies their wooden spoon position, running Glenfield close in a 12-18 defeat, though Glenfield would have felt they had the scoreboard under control at the break when they led 18-0. Michael Little scored one of the two Glenfield tries.

North Shore, who have either been good or ordinary this year, turned on another strong display, easily accounting for Northcote 48-3, although Cote made them work for it over the first 50 minutes of the game. There was a mix of promising young talent and solid rep players among Shore's scorers.

North Shore, Glenfield and Western are all locked on 37 competition points, four behind leaders Massey.