Friday 2 August 2024
First XV 24 vs 48 Sacred Heart College
The First XV suffered a disappointing 24-48 defeat at the hands of Sacred Heart College in their annual traditional fixture on Saturday.
A warm day and good conditions greeted the teams at Sacred Heart and King’s made a strong start to the game with an early try to flanker Johan Schaumkell (Year 12, School).
After the hosts answered back with two tries, King’s reclaimed the lead off the back of a 50/22 kick from first five Harrison Martin (Year 13, Selwyn), which eventually led to a try to wing Robbie Noble (Year 13, Greenbank) following a slick backline move.
Martin’s conversion made it 12-10 to King’s as the clock approached 30 minutes but that was the high point of the contest.
The next 20 minutes of the game proved to be a challenging stretch for King’s as Sacred Heart ran in six tries to seal the result as they retained the Fitzpatrick-Kirkpatrick Cup.
King’s made too many handling errors and those turnovers proved costly as they were unable to retain enough possession to execute their gameplan.
During the second half Noble added another try as part of a strong individual performance and in the final moments of the game Kahu Cotterill (Year 13, School) scored, giving King’s a four-try bonus point, which could prove valuable down the line.
Captain Flynn Hamilton-Muller (Year 13, Averill) missed the game with a knee injury, leaving midfielder Saia Manu (Year 12, Averill) to lead the side.
Coach Ian Robinson said it was a frustrating result from a match where his team were unable to click into gear.
“It’s just one of those games I suppose,” Robinson said.
“One thing goes wrong and all of a sudden the whole thing goes wrong. Our boys just struggled to try and get back into it.”
The result left King’s in sixth place on the 1A ladder but they are only one point adrift of the top four making their final two games of the regular season incredibly important.
Their next match is an away trip to Dilworth School, which is scheduled to start at the earlier time of 12.30pm on Saturday 3 August.
“We’ll roll on to next week and do our best to pick the boys up,” Robinson said.
“I think that we need to look in the mirror a wee bit around what we are doing and make sure that we bounce back well and make sure that we finish the season strongly.”
After they meet Dilworth, King’s will host Mount Albert Grammar School on Saturday 10 August.
Tries: Robbie Noble (2), Johan Schaumkell, Kahu Cotterill.
Conversions: Harrison Martin, Zion Heiloa-Savaka (Year 12, Peart)
U14 Open 14 vs 39 Saint Peter's College
After a long time away from the training and playing fields, the King’s U14s reconvened and played some very good rugby for fifteen minutes. Then a lack of fitness and resultant defensive lapses meant St Peter’s went into half time 17-nil ahead. It was largely the same in the second half but King’s showed some resolve with good short range tries to Taniela Su’ilua (Year 9, Major) and Cormack Webber. (Year 10, Marsden) The final score was 14-39. King’s play Auckland Grammar in this grade this Saturday.