Falcons floored at home

It was certainly not the homecoming that the Marlborough Boys’ College First XV envisaged.

After a gruelling five weeks and six games on the road, the Falcons returned to home soil at Lansdowne Park for today’s “Battle of the Whangamoas”, the annual tussle against their Nelson College counterparts for Tasman secondary school supremacy.

The match, which counted for points in both the South Island Boy’s Competition and the Miles Toyota Premiership, was won 35-21 by the visitors, who dominated from the outset.

Nelson scored twice in the opening 10 minutes, both tries converted by influential fullback Liam Soper, and from then the home side were effectively playing catch-up.

When they were finally able to maintain possession and work their way into good field position, MBC looked potent, hard-running midfielder Justin Prescott scoring midway through the first half, Thomas Blackmore’s conversion closing the gap to seven points.

However, just as the Falcons began to build phases and gain attacking confidence they had their pocket picked, Nelson College winger Isaac Harvey intercepting a long cut-out pass on halfway to race away and provide the visitors with a two-score advantage again.

MBC had to be the next team to score and it was Prescott who provided, running straight and hard through the Nelson defence close to the line on the stroke of halftime, Blackmore’s conversion closing the score to 21-14 at oranges.

But it did not take long after the break for Nelson to stretch away again, Soper dotting down after continued goal line pressure finally told on stout MBC defence.

MBC continued to attack and had their chances with lock George Adams, the elusive Blackmore, centre Harley Hebberd and No 8 Malakai Ligaliga prominent with ball in hand, but it was Soper who struck next, scoring a spectacular long range individual effort against the run of play, which he converted to give the visitors an almost unassailable 35-14 lead with quarter of an hour to play.

The home side were not about to throw in the towel though, a late try to Hebberd and conversion giving them hope of at least securing a couple of bonus points. However, although they finished the match camped on the Nelson line and throwing everything at their traditional rivals, a turnover saw them denied as the final moments ticked by.

MBC coach Tonga Taumoefolau was not making excuses after the disappointing result.

“It just wasn’t our day today,” he said. “We have been making slow starts all season but normally we climb back into it and finish strong.

“We have a young group and they are getting better at defending and working hard for each other. We did finish strongly in the sense of our defence holding them out in the middle of the second half ... the connection and intention was there, but the execution in the tackles was not always accurate … we let Nelson get away some good offloads in tackles and, unfortunately if you don’t stop that you pay for it.”

Tonga said he was impressed with the efforts of loose forwards Reinhardt van Greunen, a converted midfielder, and the hard-hitting Tyler Mulitalo, who both played the full 70 minutes and provided impact on both sides of the ball.

The First XV match was part of the annual MBC v Nelson College exchange, with teams competing across various sports and age grades.

The day was dominated by the visiting teams, Nelson winning the debating and chess plus the 1st XI Football 5-4, the 1st XI Hockey 2-1, the U14 Rugby 44-15, the U15 Rugby 32-12, the junior football 5-0, the senior basketball 98-67 and the junior basketball 117-56. MBC won the 2nd XV Rugby 36-26 and the 2nd XI Hockey 3-2.