Pirates Old Boys beat Marist 38-15 at Surrey Park on Saturday.
The opening 30 minutes was tightly contested but in the 10 minutes before halftime Pirates scored two converted tries to lead 19-3.
After the resumption, Desmond Spooner scored his second try for Pirates.
Marist then controlled possession and territory and closed the margin to 26-15 with 15 minutes remaining.
Marist had taken the game to uncontested scrums with 25 minutes remaining but Pirates coach Ben McHugh thought that probably worked in his side’s favour.
“I could tell that they would go to golden oldies at some stage, so I had held my loose forward reserves back and rolled them on into the front row soon as Marist went to golden oldies,’’ he said.
‘‘Our forward pack that finished was full of loose forwards and they were having a field day.”
Pirates finished strongest and crossed for two more well-constructed team tries.
Lock Craig Smith was man of the match, wing Cory Hoffman-Grey played well, as did prop Carlos Tawhai, who was on debut.
The loose forward trio of Dustin Coveney, Ben Keenan and Anton Huisman was outstanding,
Star beat Midlands 31-13 at Limehills on Thursday night.
Star scored three first-half tries to lead 19-13. Star’s first try of the second half came after a well-structured set of phases and was finished off by lock Jack Capil.
No8 Jordan Stewart dominated the match for Star, especially on defence.
Fullback Ewan Sharp did some good things, as did blindside flanker Tim Yaxley. Replacement halfback Sala Kuresa added spark.
Midlands No8 Sam Brame showed plenty of courage, taking the ball up all night into some very solid defence. Lock Joe Robbins and first five-eighth Nick Munro also impressed for Midlands.
Star coach Chris McIlwrick had praise for Midlands.
“They don’t go away, they kept trying. They lived off our scraps and we gave away a heap of penalties, which kept them in it,” he said.
In the third game, Eastern Northern Barbarians beat Blues 42-10.
In division one, Joe McRae played his 100th game for Wyndham in its 74-3 win over Albion. Joe is the third McRae brother to play 100 games for the club. All three brothers are also on the club’s committee.
In division two, DLS celebrated the Drummond club centenary by beating Bush Pirates 99-0 in front of a big crowd at McFarlane Park. Lock Carter Unahi scored two tries and was the game’s best player.
- John Langford
