A Jubilee Cup Final awaits our Premier Men after a famous victory over Northern United at Evans Bay Park (watch the replay of our livestream, linked at the bottom of this page).
The Preliminary Final was always going to be a tough one as we hosted a red hot Northern United side who had won seven games in a row and boasted one TJ Perenara at first five. The power of the Norths side was felt from the opening whistle as the visitors launched a relentless attack that saw them score first at the seven minute mark.
But this Marist St Pats side relishes the challenge, they immediately went back down the other end of the field to launch their own attack that resulted in a try to Tui Tuiatua. The teams traded another two tries in an action packed half of quality rugby. Half time score was 21-19 to Marist St Pats.
The home side scored first in the second half with a try off a 5m lineout to Keelan Whitman at the 49 minute mark; James Proctor nudged a long distance penalty four minutes later to give the Red Machine a 31-19 lead with just over 25 minutes to play.
The outstanding Josh To'omaga charged down a Perenara clearing kick before handing off to Andrew Wells to extend the lead to 38-19 and the Evans Bay faithful started checking their diaries for next Saturday afternoon.
Norths were not going to rollover, with a MSP player in the sinbin, they struck and gave themselves a sniff at a comeback as the scoreline narrowed with 10 minutes to play. Those hopes were extinguished five minutes later as Ofa Siale kicked a loose ball down field, toeing it all the way to the line. Final score, Marist St Pats 48-26.
Congratulations to Northern United on an outstanding season and a tough match, we always enjoy the big crowd that follows the team in from Porirua which adds so much to the occasion.