Late surge gets Magpies home

Anzac Weekend rugby kicked off last night at Spring Creek and Seddon.

Two Marlborough senior A fixtures were played at the country venues, freeing up the long weekend for the participating clubs.

At Awarua Park the home side, Moutere, came away with an emphatic 40-15 victory over Harlequins.

The scoreline blew out towards the end of this fixture but, for most of the match, it was a closely-fought tussle against two ‘grassroots’ sides playing direct, structured footy coupled with determined goal line defence.

Quins led early through a try to exciting fullback Vann Jager, but by halftime the home side had established a 12-8 lead advantage, fullback Tom Sutherland and prop Jordyn Gardiner touching down.

Play see-sawed through the early part of the second spell before Moutere, guided around the field by clever tactical kicking from Sutherland and first five Hugh Robinson, began to take control.

A brace to winger Ollie McKenzie, coupled with sideline conversions by Robinson, saw them move ahead 26-8 and although Quins replied with their second five-pointer to outstanding No 8 Ula Fotu Moala, the Magpies had the final say through close-range converted tries to Gardiner and replacement Haven Walsh.

Although coming off second best in their opening match, Quins will be buoyed by their efforts, especially in defence, and showed enough to suggest they will be very competitive this season.

After beating Awatere last weekend, Moutere have gone two-for-two so confidence will be rising at Awarua Park and, if they can regularly string together the sort of passages of play they produced late in yesterday’s match, they will be a very real title chance.

In the other match played last night, Awatere scored a narrow 27-25 win over Central in Seddon.

Both sides scored four tries and booted a penalty, Awatere converting two of their tries and the Blues just one, making a difference at the final whistle.

On Saturday, Renwick host Pelorus in the third senior A clash, with the Challenge Cup at stake. Kick-off is 2pm.

Tonight, Central’s Tasman Trophy side take on Waimea Old Boys at Lansdowne Park, with a 7pm kick-off.

Two Tasman Trophy matches were played last night, Marist beating Nelson 30-17 at Trafalgar Park and Kahurangi accounting for Stoke 41-24 in Motueka.