MBC Falcons fly past Shirley

The Marlborough Boys’ College First XV continued their encouraging start to the season with a 47-8 victory over Shirley Boys’ High School on the college front field this afternoon.

After notching wins in their five pre-season encounters, the Falcons moved into their Miles Toyota Premiership campaign with confidence.

Last weekend they accounted for the newly-promoted Rangiora High School XV, winning 48-3 away from home.

Today, in front of their supporters for the first time, they produced a display of forward power that ultimately ground down the visiting side, who had looked likely in the opening exchanges.

In fact it was Shirley who opened the scoring, turning a lengthy period of pressure into a try from impressive first five Rian Sulu.

Although Shirley added a penalty soon after it did not take the home side long to respond and by halftime they had racked up three tries, two converted by midfielder Anru Erasmus, to lead 19-8.

Playing towards the school in the second half and with a moderate nor-wester at their backs, the Falcons quickly upped the ante, pinning Shirley in their 22 for long periods.

Dominating possession and with their set pieces working better, the home side played to their forward strength, potent driving mauls and bullocking one-off running leading directly to four more tries, all converted by Erasmus.

MBC looked a well-drilled unit. Up front, props Mason Nicklin, Jake Gane and Jordyn Gardiner performed their core roles with urgency and efficiency while locks Ben Campbell and Luke Petrie also made their presence felt, especially at set piece time.

Loosies Rico Nicklin, playing his 20^th game, Tom Robinson and Finn Neal were a continual menace at the breakdown, and carried hard, while replacements George Adams, Luke Zillwood, Hawaiki Gerrard and co-captain Ben Gibbons, who was making his long-awaited return from injury and scored just a minute after entering the fray, all brought immediate impetus.

Midfielders Erasmus and Kyan Marcroft were the most dangerous of the back division, while first five Thomas Blackmore coolly directed operations and kicked intelligently when required.

Head coach Tonga Taumoefolau was a happy man afterwards, especially with the way his side had weathered such a strong start from Shirley.

“We got a really good fight in that first half but we stayed in it, we stuck to what we knew we were good at … the fact that once we got those opportunities we took them, that’s the happiest part.

“I wasn’t happy with the last 15 minutes though, we played like we were a tired bunch so we might have to look at our conditioning,” he added.

He admits he is fortunate to have 29 fit players available at this stage of the season, a rare situation for a coach to be in.

Next Saturday MBC are once more at home, up against St Andrew’s College at 11am, then, the following Thursday, they travel to Nelson to take on their arch rivals.

Tougher challenges lie just around the corner in a competition that requires unrelenting concentration and excellence, but this side is certainly a force to be reckoned with.

Scorers: Marlborough Boys’ College 47 (Rico Nicklin 2, Thomas Blackmore, Tom Robinson, Ben Gibbons, Mason Nicklin, Luke Zillwood, Anru Erasmus 6 con) Shirley Boys’ High School 8 (Rian Sulu try, penalty). HT: 19-8.