Marist St Pats win 14th Jubilee Cup
(More photos in the Premier-Senior Gallery, plus video highlights below).
Marist St Pat's are the 2012 Jubilee Cup champions after battling to a 14-8 win over eastern suburbs neighbours Oriental Rongotai on 12 August.
Rain poured down on a match in which MSP dominated possession and territory. On a sodden Hutt Rec which nevertheless held up well after the college final curtain raiser, they were in front for the whole game.
Fa'atonu Fili opened the scoring with a penalty after 13 minutes. Ories equalised after 22 minutes and several times looked dangerous when moving the ball, but another Fa'atonu penalty put MSP ahead 6-3 at the break.
MSP again dominated territory in the second half, and the decisive moment came 25 minutes in when two Ories front rowers including Hurricane Motu Matu'u were yellow carded for fighting. Minutes later MSP forced a five-metre scrum after a Fa'atonu drop-goal attempt was charged down. It was set under under 'no pushing' golden oldies rules and from that base, MSP hammered away against a six-man pack until captain Kas Lealamanua was driven over the line.
Ories kept attacking and in the 78th minute scored in the corner to close it to 11-8. However, they conceded a penalty when trying to run it out from the kick-off, Fa'atonu landing his third three-pointer as fulltime showed on the clock to become the highest points scorer in the Jubilee Cup round with 98.
The entire forward pack was outstanding. Prop Jeff To'omaga-Allen was named player of the final, and Kas, hooker Liu Taituave and lock Bernie Upton weren't far behind. Halfback Peter Sciascia made some great tackles in covering a leaky midfield, and Fa'atonu and fullback Andrew Wells did a good job in keeping the ball in front of their forwards.
The result caps off a fine season which saw the team Swindale Shield runners-up and Jubilee Cup champions for the 14th time.
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