Another glorious Saturday afternoon saw the Premier side venture up SH16 to take on Waitakere. Playing on arguably the best pitch in Auckland Club Rugby at the Trusts Arena, running rugby was definitely on the cards.

After a tough 2021 season, Waitakere came out of the blocks looking a lot more organised and up for the battle from the previous year. Their much bigger forward pack looked to impose themselves with an ‘up-the-guts’ approach, however, the Varsity defensive line was up for the challenge and repelled any Waitakere attack with solid defense and strong work at the breakdown.

It was Varsity who would open up the scoring, with try-scoring machine Noah Foster too fast for the covering Waitakere defence to make it 13 tries from 7 games.

Varsity continued to add to the scoreline with two quick tries to fullback Liam Brady, both off the back of some impressive lead-up work, Brady’s support play had him in the right place at the right time to allow him to dot down over the line.

Lock Ligi Paulo also crossed for a meat-pie, finishing off a break off the kick-off from returning stalwart Amos Pogia, Paulo received the ball from 25m out and showed a clean pair of heels to finish off the try.

Blues flanker Taine Plumtree was a welcomed asset for the Varsity side, also found his name on the scoresheet, Plumtree hacked the ball ahead off a Waitakere turnover and continued to hack the ball downfield to finish a sequence that started 70m from the try line.

Liam Brady added another to make it a hat-trick by half-time, and flanker Will Bason also added his name to the score sheet. Young gun Eli Margison had the radar in check converting 6 out of 7 conversions to make the score 47-7 at half-time to Varsity.

The second half was much of the same as the first half with midfielder Nigel Gibb, Plumtree, replacement first-five Tyrone Elkington, and replacement flanker Nathan Harris all crossing for 5-pointers. Liam Brady capped off a fantastic outing by scoring another to make it 4 tries for the game.

FULL TIME – Varsity 78 to Waitakere 7.

Standouts for the day was obviously 4 try hero Liam Brady, Brady displayed genuine and great anticipation to cross the line on 4 occasions. The midfield of Nigel Gibb and Aisake Tafea was solid throughout. Rookie first-five Eli Margison had a good day at the office, contributing 18 points off the boot and marshaling the troops around the paddock. Locks Ligi Paulo and Pat Vaovasa had some nice touches on attack.

The game allowed for the Varsity coaches to give the full squad quality minutes after a long pre-season and competition are certainly heating up right across the board. The next match vs. Waitemata looks to be shaping as a massive game, with Waitemata coming off two strong performances vs Waitakere and College Rifles.

Article added: Monday 09 May 2022