Team:
Alex Mithell, Lisiate Sole, Maluelue Schamkel, Micah Gillard, Josh Reynolds, Ben Brady, Thomas Gordon, Thomas Williams, Sam Warwick, Dominic Clapcott, Liam Foley, Hutana Coffin, Asipeli Mafuataimi, Hone Karaka, Spencer Jones.
Reserves:
Shneil Singh, Bryce McMullen, Liam Fisher, Jonah Haycock, Jack Foster, Mikaere Manuao-Harawira, Curtis Rountree.
This week the Harlequin boys fronted up against a finely turned Auckland side. Both teams had not lost a game all season so it was set to be the biggest match of the round.
Auckland kicked off and set about their business dominating the first 5 minutes putting the Harlequin boys under the pump straight away.
Auckland then got a penalty which they successfully kicked. Ten minutes later they were rewarded again by a good try down the right hand side. That pressure continued for the next 15 minutes before going over again. Both tries converted successfully.
Auckland had most of the play in the first half with the Harlequin boys unable to get their hands on the ball.
Auckland then scored again as they put pass after pass together and ran away with the game. They got the conversion.
Things were not looking good for the Harlequins unable to put together any sort of run and the flow just wasn’t there. Then finally the Harlequins started to string some phases together as they went wide through the backs spinning the ball wide.
But again Auckland stepped up and took control. The Auckland forwards were linking well with their backs running the Harlequins all over the park. Five minutes later the first half came to an end with Auckland up 24 points to nil.
The second half started much like the first with Auckland taking control breaking through the Harlequins defence to score 5 minutes into the second half.
This had the Harlequins under the pump again and they must have been wondering what they had to do to stop this Auckland pack.
They then started to play some better rugby as they re-grouped from the kick off. The Harlequins finally put together an attack as they broke the Auckland line going straight through their back line after some good work from the forward pack.
Five minutes later Bryce McMullen who came off the bench went over for the Harlequins first points of the game. His try went unconverted.
For the next 20 minutes the Harlequins begun to play some good free flowing rugby and were rewarded again when Asipeli Mafuataimi went over after some wonderful attacking rugby. This also went unconverted.
The Harlequin team then got more field position through the backs as they strung together some good set pieces. The forward pack was working hard as they ran into the Auckland pack time and time again. The backs were working their magic but things were not quite going their way.
The Harlequins fought hard to the end winning the second half 10-7 but at the end of the 70 minutes Auckland were just to good winning 31 points to 10.
The Harlequins travel to the Paeroa Domain next week for their last game of the season taking on Thames Valley in a curtain raiser to Thames Valley Vs Poverty Bay.
