Premier Rugby Showed Strength to Beat Brighton
At Lincoln: Lincoln University 45 (Mitch Dunshea, Connor Garden-Bachop, Caleb Makene, Callum Burrell, Jesse Houston, Joe Brady tries; Brett Cameron 5 conv, pen; Sam Gilbert conv) beat New Brighton 13 (Jordan French try; Stefan Moir conv, 2 pen). HT: 10-13. Referee: Blair Barclay.
The sandhoppers seemed to like the lush pasture of Lincoln better than the beach _ but only for the first 40min.
With the Rams still specializing in trailing at the break, Brighton must have been buoyant at the half-time huddle. Suddenly it all changed.
Brett Cameron showed great hands to whisk the ball off the deck, Sam Gilbert split the defence with a carving run, and Connor Garden-Bachop was across easily. Then Caleb Makene scored on the other side of the field after Jack Stratton made the crucial break.
Less than 3min of the second half gone, and the Rams move from 10-13 to 24-13. Three tries in the last quarter thrust Lincoln past the bonus point mark and into the semi-finals for the Hawkins Trophy.
It was a timely return by Cameron because Rameka Poihipi was seated behind the rope with serious hardware on his right leg. Cameron distributed the ball sweetly, made the odd dab himself, never shirked a tackle, and landed all of his attempts at goal, some from tricky angles across a tricky wind.
You couldn’t ask for a much more convincing win but the thing was the Rams made more mistakes than a one-armed waiter trying to serve a roomful of customers at once. Youthful exuberance mostly.
In the first half, fullback Gilbert took off on a remarkable angled run from his own line and almost got to halfway before meeting solid resistance. Then he made a slick offload in the tackle. Problem was he gave the ball to Brighton left wing Jordan French, who gratefully scooted away to score.
So Brighton’s only try was against the run of play although lock Boris van Bruchem went close with a good break just on half-time.
The visitors were severely handicapped in the scrums where Lincoln several times shunted them right off their own ball or at least gave Brighton No.8 Aaron McCoy an impossible task. Harrison Courtney and Troy Hallett were at the cutting edge of Lincoln’s demolition job and both showed up powerfully with ball in hand.
Mitch Dunshea and Jack Stratton were late additions to the starting line-up after being cleared to play by the Crusaders. Dunshea was strong in the lineouts and about the field. He made a stunning run for the line in the first quarter only to lose the ball with a try looming. Not long after he finished a forward siege on the Brighton line. Jack Stratton was, well, Jack Stratton. Enough said.
Makene was as slippery as a butcher’s handshake as he ran the ball back at the opposition. Jesse Houston played the role of arch-burglar again, stealing a try as Brighton sought to break out from the deep.
The visitors had some good passages of play without setting the world on fire. Nikos Cummings-Toone played his 100th game for the seasiders while Scott Pawson also hit the century mark as coach.
MVP: Harrison Courtney 3, Caleb Makene 2, Jack Stratton 1.
Unfortunately for the other two sides playing on Saturday their results were not such happy reading. Both the Colts A and the Premier Reserve teams played at Sydenham Park against their respective counterparts. The Wethers opened the account with a good forward drive from a lineout but Sydenham were able to score at will through the remainder of the match to convincingly beat LU 50-22. With a full compliment of players back on deck for semester 2 their matches against Shirley at home this weekend and the away match to Burnside the following require wins if they are to make the semi-finals.
The Colts A team went into their final match of the regular season 3 points clear of their section 2 opposition Sydenham. In a close game the team were able to keep in touch throughout and only trailed by 1 point at half time 10-11. Two converted tries early in the second half and a penalty took Sydenham's lead out to 28-10 resulting in plenty of work to do for the Lincoln lads. Two late converted tries to Lincoln closed the gap but unfortunately a little too late with the victory going to Sydenham 28-24. With only three tries Sydenham picked up the four points for the win and LU came away with 1 point for coming within 7 to tie on 11 points each. With Sydenham having the win in the play-offs they go through as top qualifier and will meet second in section A, HSOB, in two weeks time while Lincoln will play top placed Christchurch in the other semi-final at a venue to be confirmed.
The Lincoln University Premier Women's had the BYE in the weekend but the results of matches played went their way with Christchurch being convincing victors over HSOB to keep them win-less after three matches. Lincoln's two points from the match against Suburbs on the 16th of June keeps them in semi-final contention at present but the winner of this Saturday's match against HSOB will determine who qualifies fourth and with it the chance of making the finals.
Once again a big thanks Jim Doyle for his comprehensive Premier write-up and to all our sponsors, supporters and friends who turn out each week to support LU Rugby.
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