Ruapehu U21's blitz into the final

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 14, Issue 648, 6 August 1996, Page 16

Ruapehu U21's blitz into the final

Ruapehu U21's kicked their way into the grand final with a 42-3 win against Marist Wanganui on Saturday at Raetihi. Within 5-6 minutes of the kick off, infringements by Marist gave Ruapehu two penalty opportunities which Chris Winter made sure of, the score 6-0. Marist tightened their defence and on attack took Ruapehu back to their line. Terry Taumata, winger for Ruapehu, kicked the ball into touch saving a certain Marist try. Tightening their defence, Ruapehu' s forwards fed good clean ball and on attack they found the gap, with Chris Winter feeding a good pass to Charles Neils, open side flanker, who went in for a great try. The try unconverted took the score to 11-0. Marist went on attack in the 20-25th minutes with their wingers both showing 3 good drivingplay and stepI ping up their boot ability,

kicking the ball to their advantage. However, Marist lost that advantage from good play which became untidy mid-field giving Ruapehu their second try with Neils again doing the honours and Mario Mareikura converting, the score 18-0. Marist opened their ac-

count with a penalty goal, the score 18-3, in the second half. Ruapehu was a little untidy at times with three penalties against them. However, they settled again getting back into a better rhythm of play. Another try to Craig Pay saw the score go to 25-3 with Chris Winter kicking a well placed

conversion. Tony Watts, who came in as wing replacement for Pye, put more points on the board for Ruapehu. His try was not converted, the score 30-3. Terry Taumata and Nick Bunker both scored tries with Chris Winter converting one more taking it to the final score of 42-3.