April 15, 2021
Greetings all.
For the second match of the 2021 season, 10th April, the Senior Teams travelled to Hicks Park in Hawera to take on Southern who entered the matches following a good start to their season with 3-0 wins against Tukapa on their 25th Jubilee the previous weekend. The weather however took a turn for the worse with wet and windy conditions throughout the day.
A brief outline of the matches is as follows.
BCD Group NPOB Premier Team
The Premier team recorded a dominant 46-7 victory in windy conditions. Old Boys enjoyed a good start to the match with Lachie Boshier – who was released by the Chiefs to play for the Club – scoring the 1st try which was converted by Daniel Waite. Chris Bryan scored the first of his 3 tries and Daniel Waite kicked a penalty to close out the 1st half scoring. Old Boys led 15-0 at half time in what was a very dominant performance.
In the 2nd half Old Boys continued its dominance with tries to Chris Bryan (2) Daniel Waite, Patrick Stark with a conversion to Daniel Waite and Cody Rei to lead 39-0. Southern then scored a converted try to score their only points of the match, before Josh Doshing in his first game for the Club for a number of seasons, scored in the closing minutes of the game converted by Daniel Waite to see Old Boys with a comprehensive victory 46-7.
Old Boys best players were Chris Bryan (1 point), Don Brighouse (2 points) and Jack Green (3 points).
Alsco NPOB Division 1
The Division 1’s travelled down to Hawera for a repeat of last year’s final against a tough Southern side. Old Boys came out on top 14-5 in a match that was played in atrocious conditions, although this is what you come to expect when playing at the Hub. The Div 1’s played the 1st half with a slight wind advantage, but the team struggled to contain Sothern’s large forward pack. Southern were the first to score but Old Boys responded with 3 crucial first half penalties to Sean White. The wind picked up in the 2nd half and was at the backs of Southern, so it was always going to be an uphill battle to hold on for the win. Lineouts had become a lottery and the majority of the half was played down out of our own 22 but a piece of magic from Mr Taranaki (Liam McBride) saw Alex Patterson go over in the corner to extend the lead to 14-5. Old Boys rolled up their sleeves and battled away for the last 20 to hold on for a hard-fought win.
Jaymz Tito was a standout off the bench, ensuring a solid platform at scrum time and provided some good go forward and he deserved the 3 points. Jarrod Ritson in his first game for the team was into everything and won some crucial turnovers late in the 2nd half. Alex Patterson & Tom Larsen also both had strong games, but it truly was a team effort to get the W.
Pepper Construction NPOB Colts
The Colts ground out a tough 16-15 victory in windy conditions. The match was the classic game of 2 halves.
Old Boys were lucky enough to win the toss and play with the wind in the 1st half. The early action was very physical with Southern possibly taking exception to their local player Mason Milham transferring to NPOB during the week. There was certainly a lot of endeavour in their defence when Mason had ball in hand. Old Boys took advantage of early penalties with Tom Morris kicking 3 penalties within the first 20 minutes. Tom then scored under the posts and converted right on halftime to give Old Boys a 16-0 lead.
The margin proved to be enough points and that was possibly because Southern hadn’t learnt the lessons from the 1st half. Tom Morris put his boot to ball within Old Boys half each time they received the ball in the 2nd half while Southern spent a large amount of time trying to run the ball out of its 22m zone. However, when Southern did get into Old Boys 22m zone, their big ball runners did the job to score 3 unconverted tries.
Old Boys spent the last 10 minutes in desperate defence within its 22m zone with some really good defence towards the end forcing a turn-over to kick the ball out and secure the win.
It was good to share the bus with the Division 1 team & the new Colts players were subjected to the annual roundabout to roundabout run in Stratford.
This week, 17th April, the Senior Teams play Tukapa at Vogeltown Park. Game times are:
· U13 12.30pm
· Colts 1.00pm
· Division 1 1.00pm
· Premiers 2.45pm
The Club will also celebrate Old Timers Day this Saturday and we invite all past players and officials to the White House to celebrate the occasion commencing at 1pm with some refreshments and finger food.
Other Home games for the round-robin season are:
| Date | Opponent |
| 08 May | Stratford-Eltham |
| 15 May | Inglewood |
| 29 May | Southern |
| 12 June | Coastal |
| 19 June | Clifton |
Details of other social events at the White House will be provided in the coming weeks.
In closing the Club extents its condolences and thoughts to Lyal French-Wright and family after Pauline’s sad and sudden passing following a brief illness.
Cheers
Keith and Owen
