Team:
Joshua Kaho, Caleb Wallbank, Bradley Fountain, Daniel Preest, Lachlan Mcwhannell, Jacob Norris©, Nathan Single, Israel Immanueli, Xavier Row, Liam Coombes-Fabling, Joseph Ma, Daniel Tau, Dwayne Hughes, Manaaki Heta, Johan Pio.
Reserves:
Liam Gilheany-Black, Matt Mauai, Austin Pepperall, Conor Loomans, Momo Niwa, Josh Coffin, Feki Taukafa.
The Harlequins in their 2nd outing of the year hosted the New Zealand Area Schools in the annual test match at Fred Jones Park going up against a far bigger stronger pack. However, the skill and precision showed in a amazing display of running rugby from the Harlequins. The Harlequins continued with their trend of having a dominant scrum, putting pressure on the Area Schools pack continually at scrum-time and making sure the bigger pack had a hard day at the office.
The Harlequins and the Area Schools team both brought strong expansive game play to the table right from the outset. With the Area Schools providing headaches with darting runs and strong physical play. However, the strong tackling from the loosies helped to keep the points to none. The pressure from the Area Schools was strong and the Harlequins were constantly under pressure but with a dominant technical advantage at the ruck and tactical kicking from the halves they were able to absorb the pressure, then flip the pressure on to the area schools in their 22.
The Harlequins cracked the line in the 6th minute with Lachlan scoring after an offload from Johan Pio. The conversion was unsuccessful. In the 20th minute keeping the pressure on the Area Schools, the Harlequins were able to get an attacking lineout in the Area Schools 22. With some nice footwork from 1st 5 Liam Coombes-Fabiling, he set up Johan Pio to score in the corner. The kick was missed. Right on the half-time whistle, the Harlequins were able to score with a tap and go passed out to Lachlan who muscled his way over the line for his second of the day right under the post, and the kick was good.
The Harlequins started the second half the same as the first; Full speed, with fastball movement, crisp hands, and precision work. The limited build up of the area schools was starting to show and the Harlequins took advantage in the 42nd minute with a quick tap by Liam Gilheany-Black and a quick pass out to Johan for him to jot down his second, 26-0 to the Harlequins. The Harlequins were quick to add more points, jotting down again in the 55th minute with Johan getting his hat-trick after a nice set up from Daniel Tau. The kicked was missed, 31-0.
The New Zealand Area Schools were able to get on the board with some strong running from Rorea Hartley, using his strength and size to carry multiple tacklers over the line and score under the post. The kick was converted, and the score was now 31-7. More points came in the 61st minute to Feki Taukafa after a skip pass from 2nd 5 Mathew Mauai. The final try of the match came by way of Israel Immanueli after using the forward pack to push over through a ruck and scoring under the post. Kick is good, 43-7. The New Zealand Area Schools played hard and were committed right until the end. We wish them the best for the rest of their campaign.
The Harlequins now have a week off until they play BOP at Morrinsville’s Campbell Park on the 12th September. Kick off is at 1.00pm. We look forward to seeing you down there!
