Ruapehu U21 rugby win & loss

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 13, Issue 590, 13 June 1995, Page 16

Ruapehu U21 rugby win & loss

By

Bob

Graves

Revenge was sweet for the Ruapehu Under 21 Rugby Squad recently, having lost to Marist in the first round by three points, when they beat their rivals soundly on Raetihi turf. Marist only twice looked like scoring but great cover tackles by Craig Pye snuffed them out. The Under 21s on the other hand always looked dangerous

with the forwards and backs working well together. Two great solid runs by Robert Grossart so terrified the opposition that two tries from planned back line moves saw Kelly Arahanga score under the black dot. Two more tries were scored and with the conversion and penalties, they cleaned out Marist 29-9. Down to Waverly The team's trip to Waverly however, resulted in a 23-13 loss, though supporters say the Ruapehu team won it everywhere but on the scoreboard. Waverly got on attack once and scored. For the next 30 minutes the U21s attacked but lacked purpose stringing together first and second phase plays and never really looked like scoring. Down 7-0 and into the second half Waverly soon led by 20-0. It was then that the U21s decided to do what the coach said. With 20 minutes left they pulled finger, spun the ball, scored some tries and Waverly were very worried with their lead cut to 20-13. The last scoring play was a penalty to give Waverly a 10point win. The U21s lost the game in the lineouts where they were cleaned out through lack of variation and constantly throwing the ball to Waverly's best jumper. The back line tried to crash through instead of spinning wide. Lastly, they lost it in the 'mouth department' where half the backs were making more noise than all the spectators put togeiner. B ut for a lot of the game they tried hard, played well and showed that they can do it when the pressure is on. The team thanked the two army players who joined the team to make up the numbers, 'Vee' and 'Jonsey'. Vee set up one try and scored one himself. The two shared the player of the day award.