Bumper day of preseason rugby

On a warm autumn afternoon most of our rugby teams saw preseason action around Wellington, with three games played at Evans Bay Park.

The Colts kicked off the day at Evans Bay with the inaugural Xavier Reidy Cup against the St Patrick's College 1st XV. The game was action packed and played with passion that was befitting the occasion. The close fought match was ultimately won by St Pat's after scoring the winning try on the final play of the game, final score 26-22.

It was an honour to have Brendan and Paula on hand to present the trophy along with treasured sports jackets for each team to award their player of the day each week.

Next up were the Premier Reserves who hosted Johnsonville's Premiers. After conceding two early tries it looked like it could be a hard day at the office, but the team bounced back quickly and soon took the lead.

A strong second half performance saw them run away with the match, winning by 43-24. This was an outstanding result against Premier opposition which bodes well for another strong season from this side.

Our Premier Men welcomed Nelson Marist to Wellington with another high scoring affair, Isaia Petelo and Rez Tasele scored tries in the opening five minues. A worthy oppoonent, Nelson then got to work and attacked the Marist St Pats line for the next 20 minutes, coming up with a try for their perseverance. The Red Machine then got back to work on attack and took a 33-7 lead into half time.

The game was put out of reach by another two tries to the home side before the visitors scored late tries to bring the final score to 50-33. The Premier coaches will be pleased with the effort of the side. Despite a number of handling errors often seen in preseason games, they put together some strong phases of play.

Away from Evans Bay, our Premier Women played two short games against Oriental Rongotai and Old Boys University resulting in one win and one loss. Our Under 85s played Wellington in a repeat of last year's Tony O'Brien Shield final, coming out with a 24-10 win.

MoST Content Management V3.0.8886