A wet game, we learnt how to play wet rugby with 15 minutes to go and after being down 5-3 at halftime we picked up the brand new cup 30-5 at full time. Coaches Match Report follows. A reminder that the boys play Francis Douglas on Wednesday up in New Plymouth - at Francis Douglas 12pm KO.

PNBHS 1st XV vs Whanganui Collegiate 1st XV

PNBHS faced Whanganui Collegiate in what was the Centennial Match, the match that marked 100 years since the teams first played in July 1923. Unfortunately the weather failed to play its part and the game kicked off in very damp and difficult conditions.

Poor discipline from PNBHS immediately put Collegiate in the ascendancy as a series of penalties allowed them to set-up camp in the PNBHS 22. Despite some solid defence Collegiate opened the scoring with a well worked try from a line out. PNBHS began to work their way back into the game but errors and poor discipline prevented them from building any pressure. They earned a penalty to reduce the deficit and headed into the half trailing 5-3

The half time chat focused on improving our discipline, being more decisive with our decision making and making sure we controlled the territory in the second half.

The boys followed these instructions superbly. The discipline improved and the PNBHS defence were able to pressure the Collegiate attack and led by the boot of Liam O’Connor PNBHS began to control the field position. This pressure led to two further penalties and PNBHS were ahead 9-5 and on top. After a series of line out drives PNBHS resorted to a tap penalty move that saw Eli Oudenryn crash over and extend the lead. Buoyed by this and the extra energy off the bench they soon had Collegiate under more pressure and a series of pick and go’s was finished by Ollie Barham darting over.

Determined to reduce the deficit Collegiate attacked with vigour but a turnover saw the ball shifted to Jamie Viljoen who used quick hands to free the ball and a nice draw and pass from Jaziah Symons saw Liam O’Connor scamper 40 meters to score the final try and secure a hard fought victory and the Centennial Cup for PNBHS.

The team will now look to recover well before we head to New Plymouth to face Francis Douglas in our second White Jersey game on Wednesday.

Final Score: PNBHS 1st XV 30 Whanganui Collegiate 1st XV 5

Scorers:

Tries: Eli Oudenryn, Ollie Barham, Liam O’Connor

Conversions: Liam O’Connor (3)

Penalties: Liam O’Connor (3)

Thank you so much to Brendan Tootell our AFC sponsor and Todd Collins our NZSC Sponsor for making life nicer for the reserves and putting up Reserve Shelters for both teams. 

Thank you to all of you who have made your WJC donation for 2023, that is awesome if you are still in the process of getting this sorted we will look forward to receiving it.

WJC Bank details

01-0745-0025368-02

It was awesome to see so many of you attend the Dinner on Friday night, David Kirk entertained us as Guest Speaker as did Hamish McKay as our MC. I will get some photos on the Old Boys Facebook page from Friday night.

Kind Regards

Rachel