Wellington 40 Mens vs Auckland 40 Mens
With a minute till tap off, the boys from both teams look pumped, ready to go, and I must say…. very tanned from the great NZ weather. Auckland line up and tap off with 9 ex and present NZ players. Wellington with no NZ players seemed cool calm and collected defending Auckland’s starter play. Defence appeared to be the tone of the first nine minutes of the half for Wellington as Auckland set up camp at the black and yellow end.
James Gould lead the defence by example by saving many of Auckland’s attempts to crack the touchdown line. After nine minutes of great D, all it took was one error by an Auckland middle to allow Wellington’s ‘player of the match’ Mose Samani to crack the Auckland touchdown line to make the score 1-0 Wellington. Mose was not finished, as he was part of a Touchdown that involved quick hands to Joe Birch to dot in the corner.
2-0 Wellington seemed to be the wakeup call that legend Peter Walters needed to change him into his superman cape and reel the game back in. After some great driving from George Jack and Mack Herewini, Walters was able to do his magic on the five setting up two touchdowns: Shane Edwards scored off a Scoop step back (known as a ‘7s’ or ‘W’) and Danny Reulu from a scoop and long ball. 2-2
At 2-2 Wellington were looking very composed and organised, and Auckland starting to find their feet ended a very competitive first half.
The second half seemed to be a lot different for both teams. Wellington captain Wayne Beckham did not manage to bring the same team on for the second half as Auckland dominated from the outset. Raymond Te Moananui started the scoring taking the score to 3-2. The rest of the second half belonged to Peter Walters who scored or set up the next three touchdowns.
Final score 6-2 Auckland.
Moving forward
Wellington: If they can re-produce their first half in future games, they will be a force to be reckoned with.
Auckland: The first half of this game proved that the defending champs Auckland are human even though are picked as favourites
Last Modified on 24/02/2013 20:44