9 May Premier Results & Match Report

North Shore 23 Massey 20
Western Pioneers 101 Marist 3
East Coast Bays 85 Mahurangi 19
Glenfield 38 Takapuna 12
Northcote 38 Silverdale 37

North Shore, the defending North Harbour champions, served a timely reminder that they are not a pale imitation of their 2014 selves with an upset 23-20 win at Massey.

The westerners looked the goods early, dominating possession and the collision area, and took a 15-6 lead to oranges. But Shore came out firing in the second spell, scoring three tries, to loose forward Dillon Wihongi and a brace to Jonny Yandall. Centre Matt Vaega scored a try and kicked two goals for Massey, who suffer their first loss of 2015.

Both Northcote and Silverdale have been involved in a number of close games this season, with both sides desperately unlucky not to have posted more than one win each throughout the first round. Northcote raced away to a 31-16 halftime lead but a strong Silverdale second spell almost saw them pinch the game with two notable braces from Rangiera Takarangi and Darren Wigg.

Glenfield continued their impressive march with another strong display against a rebuilding Takapuna to record a 38-12 win and a first defence of the Les Pearce Memorial Shield. Josh Rowland scored two tries for Glenfield, who travel to Western next Saturday for a top of the table clash.There were 11 tries scored in this thriller.

Western posted over 100 points on a Marist side that is doing it tough in 2015, the 101-3 victory featuring a 36-point haul from Matt McGahan and three more tries to the competition's leading tryscorer Ritchie Ah Chong.

East Coast Bays looked for a time as though they might also hit that mark over Mahurangi. The final score was 85-19, but the good news for Mahurangi was that they scored three tries. Bays had two doubles through AJ Tuhoro and Tua Saseve among their 12 touchdowns.

Massey remain at the top of the points ladder thanks to their earlier wins over their rivals, but the points table has closed right up, with five teams within one win of each other.

STEVE JACKSON – MASSEY v NORTH SHORE

Moire Park – Saturday 9 May

23-30 (Shore)

I headed out West to watch the in-form Massey take on a Shore team whose “Pride” had been severely hurt from their 50 point demolition at the hands of Glenfield just 7 days prior.

Shore started the game well and the early stages saw both teams locked at 3-3, but it was Massey to strike with the first 5 pointer to take the lead 8-3, with Chris Vui having a good opening stanza.  Shore replied shortly after with another penalty to edge closer 8-6.

Massey were let off the hook with continuous poor kicking from Shore which allowed Massey a lot of possession in the last 20 minutes of the half  and they didn’t disapoint running in another 2 tries to go into the half 20-6.

At the break it looked to all that Massey would run away with the game however Shore came out from the huddle to take the game to the unbeaten Westerners and added the first points of the half through a penalty. 

Dillon Wihongi then scored out wide after sustained pressure, with players like Adam Batt getting through their work up front.  At 20-16 this brought Shore within striking distance and they didn’t disappoint.  What happened next was probably the try of the season - Shore for the first time, chanced their arm deep inside their 22 by moving the ball and after several interchanges between the forwards and backs, winger John Yandall crossed over the line to score the match winner in great fashion which was subsequently converted. There was also some great defence from Shore in the last 5 minutes who dug deep to hold Massey off and hand them there first defeat of the season, what a turnaround from last week.