The Men’s B team has kept fortress Windsor Park intact with a 22-17 win over Counties Manukau Black. The B’s welcomed Counties Black for a ding-dong battle in the Bays with Harbour dominating the entire match but lacked the finishing touches to secure a bonus point win. Harbour had a 14-3 lead at half time, and played downwind in the second spell. Counties were expected to finish strongly and they did with 17 points on the board and the ball in hand, an attack was cut short of the try line in the 78th minute, resulting in a huge sigh of relief from the Harbour team and their supporters. The three tries came from Josh Tyrell, Lewis Gjaltema and Mark Talea with his acrobatic 5 pointers, with David McMurtrie steering the ship and kicking 2 conversions and a penalty. Player of the day went to Adrian Smith. North Harbour have four wins from five outings to sit on 18 points in second place, 6 points behind leader Auckland and two points in front of Taranaki to whom they will travel for a game at New Plymouth on Saturday 23 September.
The Under 19’s finished in 3rd place in the Jock Hobbs Memorial National U19 tournament in Taupo with a 24-17 win over Canterbury. Tries went to Mackenave Pisi and Sebastian Tielu with Jack Bergin kicking a conversion and 4 penalty goals. A close 20-27 loss to Waikato in the semi’s which could have gone either way knocked them out of the final however it was North Harbour’s best performance to date overall in this prestigious tournament.
The Under 85Kg representative team took the big journey to Taumarunui to play King Country Development and came away with a 12-29 loss. Down 7-15 at half-time the U85’s could not pull back the Rams on a heavy track. Tries went to Nate Smith and Isaac Leaumoana with Cam Dalzell notching the conversion. The U85’s play against Counties-Manukau at Northcote this Saturday at 2.30pm.
Harbour Hibiscus women went down 12-34 to Bay of Plenty at Rotorua and tries went to Caitlyn Cox and Claudia McMeekin with Sophie Fisher kicking the conversion. Their next fixture is 12.05pm at QBE Stadium on Saturday 23 September vs Hawkes Bay as curtain-raiser to the Mitre 10 Cup game vs Canterbury. The U18 Girls started their season with a 10-20 loss to Auckland West at Northcote and fullback Tiana-Rose Henry dotted down for two tries.
The U18 Girls host Auckland East at Northcote again at 1pm this Saturday 23 September and the following weekend will play in the Blues vs Chiefs regional cross-over finals in Waikato.
The Under 14’s and Under 16’s did not fare well in their home games of the tournament at Northcote and Bays with U16 White losing 12-46 to Auckland South, U16 Cardinal going down 0-60 to Auckland East, U14 White beaten 10-33 by Auckland South and U14 Cardinal defeated by Auckland East 3-62. The Under 14’s and Under 16’s have their cross-over finals at the Marist club in Auckland this Saturday 23 September to complete their season.
Main photo by John Rau - Mens B - Flkr and Captain Ryan Thompson wins the Lineout
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