Northern rugby crown to Ruapehu U21's

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 13, Issue 638, 28 May 1996, Page 12

Northern rugby crown to Ruapehu U21's

Ruapehu' s under21 rugby team won the Northern Wanganui Championship on Saturday with a 71-12 victory over Utiku at Taihape. Added to that, they have won the Maoriland Cup for being combined first round winners and now have to defend this in each secondround game. The team played their

usual open style game throwing the ball around at every chance to score eleven tries to two against them. Utiku, playing with a number of their senior players in the team, simply could not match the speed of the Ruapehu backs and loose forwards. The Ruapehu tight five took control up front to set up a good supply of ball for the backs to play their

natural game. The halftime score was 31-5 and Ruapehu put on 40 points in the second half. This game wrapped the first round with Ruapehu

having 34 competition points out of a maximum 35 — deemed an outstanding effort. The coaches are quick to point out the team have their feet

firmly on the ground and take one game at a time as they build towards their goal of a place in the major finals. The team travel back to Taihape this Saturday to

play against a very good Taihape Pirates to begin the second round. Scorers on Saturday were Joe Metekingi 3, Terry Tumata 2, Mario Mareikura, Nick

Burker, Tony Watts, Adrian Mclntyre, Ian Rowe, Ricky Arahaka one each with Chris Winter converting eight. Player of the day was the whole team.