Premier Rugby Report - 19th April

By LINDSAY KNIGHT.

Massey, last year’s champions, continued their strong opening in the North Harbour premier rugby competition on Saturday with their fourth straight win, a 25-16 away victory over the 2013 runnersup, North Shore.

The three tries to one win has taken to Massey to a six-point table lead in the Buck Shelford Shield round, over Western Pioneers, who won the one match played on Good Friday, 15-10 over East Coast Bays.

The Massey-Shore match was an intense contest between the sides many expect to be again this season’s finalists. Even without Blues Super 15 squad members, Tevita Li and Pita Ahki, and losing halfback Ignacio Costa, to injury, Massey fielded a dangerous backline, which proved to be the key to the win with their hard running and staunch tackling.

After an even first spell, Massey gained an edge in the second and started to outscrum Shore. As well as a solid defence, they also took full advantage of any scoring chances. That was a contrast to Shore, who penalised themselves by wasting opportunities, through mishandling when the line was open or failing to take shots at goal.

Shore thus finds themselves in the strange position of having only won one of four matches so far this season and back in sixth place on the table. However, it would be premature to write them off as a championship contender and against Massey they were without regular captain, Josh Blucher, serving a suspension from the previous round.

Though Massey have a big lead, the rest of the table is remarkably congested. Between the second and eighth sides there are only four points, with Glenfield and Takapuna producing the weekend’s other significant results. Glenfield upset Northcote 27-17 and Takapuna looked more the force of old with an 87-7 win over Mahurangi.

Outstanding for Glenfield was the powerhouse No 8 Moe Situa, wing Puavao Samoa, who scored two of the side’s three tries and first five-eighths Alex King, who controlled play expertly and contributed 12 points with his accurate boot.

Glenfield have lost two of their best backs from last year, Michael Little, now with Western Pioneers, and Raniera Takarangi, with Takapuna, but have been the competition’s surprise packet so far. They would have been in an even stronger table position but for an unlucky loss to Takapuna.

Former Auckland, Bay of Plentty, Chiefs and Japan five-eighths Murray Williams scored three of Takapuna’s 13 tries in their big win over Mahurangi, and the side’s other experienced inside back, Jon Elrick, contributed 22 points with 11 conversions.

Silverdale were another big winner, 62-8 over Marist. Silverdale’s imposing return to form meant that they joined the other “country” clubs, Massey and Western Pioneers, at the head of the table.