Mixed results for rookies

The Waikato Development rugby team fielded their strongest team of the season at the weekend and got their best result of the northern region competition so far.

The Waikato side, coached by Basil Lennan and Johnny Gordon, beat North Harbour Development XV 27-10 at North Harbour Stadium on Saturday – their first win over their Harbour counterparts in several years. That result follows a 25-18 win over Bay of Plenty and a 30-16 loss to Counties-Manukau. Waikato have a bye this week and will then play Auckland Emerging Players at Eden Park on September 18, Auckland B at Waikato Stadium on September 25 and Northland in Whangarei on October 2. The latter two matches are curtain-raisers to Waikato ITM Cup matches.

The top six teams qualify for the playoffs, with the top two seeds getting byes into the semifinals while three will play six and four will play five in the October 8-9 quarterfinals, the losers dropping out and the winners going to the October 16 semifinals.

Waikato Development's latest win saw Waikato A squad members Henry Speight, Frank Halai, Alex Bradley, Zac Hohneck and Chris Middleton all play for them, Bradley scoring two of their three tries and hooker Vance Elliott getting the other. Waikato led 17-10 at halftime and scored the only points of the second half, second five-eighth Dean Devcich finishing the match with 12 points from three conversions and two penalty goals.

The team have fielded a different line-up in every match so far.

Two players – Sam Christie and Andre Ellison – have been away covering for injuries in the A squad up until now, although Ellison is now injured.

Waikato Under-20 lost 26-21 to North Harbour Under-20 at Silverdale on Saturday, Kane Adams and Navi Sikivou scoring tries, Nathan George kicking a conversion and two penalty goals and Jordan Davies a penalty goal.

That followed a 25-14 loss to Auckland Under-20 the previous week and a 24-10 win over Bay of Plenty two weeks ago. There were also pre-season wins over Hawke's Bay and Taranaki, the latter seeing a century of points registered.

The Waikato team, coached by Howie King and Josh Hay, will this Saturday play Counties-Manukau, followed by the final northern region round-robin match against Northland on September 18.

Waikato Under-16 opened their northern region campaign with a 74-5 win over King Country on Saturday, leading 52-0 at halftime.

Josh Gascoigne scored three tries with Mark Tyrell, Eddie Walker and Jonty Rae all claiming doubles, while Josh O'Flaherty kicked seven conversions. Denzil Manu had an outstanding all-round match.

The NZ Harlequin Under-17 side beat North Harbour Under-18B 10-8 after leading 10-5 at halftime, also on Saturday. Centre Niko Malo scored the only try for the winners and Mark Christensen kicked a conversion and penalty goal. No8 Chris Lolohea was man of the match.

The Waikato Roller Mills Trophy team went down 17-0 to Bay of Plenty in a pre-season fixture.

- © Fairfax NZ News