Night N Day Pirates-Old Boys Under 9 took on the strong Marist Green side this weekend.  Although beaten 25-5 the team performed superbly working to a plan to stop the big Marist forwards running rampant up the middle.  Aggressive gang tackling ensured that these monsters were shut down forcing Marist to look elsewhere to gain an advantage.  Down 10-5 at the break the team conceded  a run away try immediately but the game was in the balance until the final 3 minutes where Marist scored 2 tries out wide after freeing the ball from maul situations with most players committed to the breakdown.  The team did well getting numbers to the tackle and tying up the ball and there were some huge hits put in by player of the day Jayden Goble, Neha Kane and Trent Hogg. 

On attack the boys had Marist stretched a few times with Jayden proving difficult to stop.  Good support for ball carriers was provided by Bailey Stewart (aka Turtle) and Seth Ryder.  Thanks to Ben Jennings and Eli Meuli who played 2 games today to help us out.  They added some valuable experience and grunt to our side and must have been knackered by the time the game was finished.  We have a few things to work on such as off-loading at the right time, keeping players out wide to defend and running straight instead of sideways on occasions but all in all a top effort from the boys today, probably the best of the season,deserving of a closer scoreline and the team can hold their heads up high.

After winning 2 bus trip games in a row the boys had the challenge of trying to pick up their first win of the season at home against a well performed Star team who were just outside the top 4 on the points table. 

In damp conditions Star scored first with a penalty in the first 10 minutes before Rolly got a sniff of the tryline from the 22 and in a blistering display of acceleration shuffled his svelte frame down the sideline to score the first try of the day. Cam McStay also displayed some excellent finishing skills and scored a long range try. Along with a couple of further tries and Jako managing to kick a couple of extras the score nearing halftime was POB 24 Star 8.

A great period of defence about 10 minutes before half time kept Star out and restricted their points to the early penalty and a try. In the 2nd half Star being abit short of numbers on the bench resorted to the recent POB tactic of putting front row forwards in their backline which provided a fair match up for Rolly and Sam when he came on.

POB kept up their momentum in the 2nd half and despite the damp conditions played some good attacking rugby and kept the scoreboard ticking over. Tuki Hiko playing his last game for us this season scored a nice try in the
corner, he also got a 10 minute rest behind the posts for a minor indiscretion which earned him a yellow card. Cody Gavan benefited from not having his brother Lennon on the paddock and took a nice pass close to the line just before fulltime to finish off the game with his first try of the
season.

Mike Keenan slotted in nicely at no.8 in place of Shrimpy and Oscar did some great work at half back. The whole bench was used and the final score was the result of the good teamwork the boys have been displaying in the recent weeks.

POB 42 Star 8 - a result Jamie Clarke has been waiting along time for... 

Pirates-Old Boys 42 (Tuki Hiko, Jamie Clarke, Cody Gavan, Mike Keenan,

Cameron McStay, Daniel Rolton tries; Jack Sharland 3 con, 2 pen) bt Star 8

(Mana Wright try, Sam Tauriki pen) Halftime: Old Boys 24-8 
Last game of the season for us this weekend at home against Marist who have

had some good wins and have spent all season in the top 1/2 of the table.

Theme for Saturday night at the club is "bring a date".

Saturday saw us hit the road again on the last bus trip of the season to Nightcaps to Play Ohai - Nightcaps. Our 3 previous bus trips had seen victories over Tokanui, Balfour - Lumsden and Pioneer so making it 4 out of 4 was a priority for the boys.

The ground at Nightcaps was in good condition and an open cast coal mine operating in the background made for an impressive setting. The game kicked off and both teams got stuck into it. POB carried on their good form from the Pioneer game and scored 2 early tries to Buskey & birthday boy Ash.

Jibba went off for a blood bin 20 minutes into the first 1/2 (sorry Jibba - no touch judges in Div2 rugby) which saw Dennis go to 10 and Oscar slot into 1/2 back. POB kept up the momentum and further tries were scored by Jako, Dennis and Lennon. 

Lennon was awarded his try much to the dismay of the local crowd after the ref waited for a couple of players who had tackled Lennon to get off him before he was able to check the grounding.  Jak Sharland took over the kicking duties from Oscar and managed one conversion which made the 1/2 time score 27 0 to POB.
 
Injury and illness saw Ben and Rolly replaced in the backline in the 2nd half by a prop (Lennon) and a hooker (Hayden) which along with Sams recent conversion to 2nd five made 11 of the team forwards which suited the 2nd half conditions.

Ohai - Nightcaps started off the second 1/2 determined to get some points on the board and scored first with an unconverted try. The second 40 was a good even battle 2 further tries were scored by Jako and Dennis along with
another conversion. Another try was bombed after Lennon failed to run in his brother Cody for a simple try which caused some discussion between them. Maybe some backyard passing practice as youngsters would have helped.

A feature of our recent games has been some minor sledging of opposition players based on hair colour. Ohai Nightcaps turned the tables on us this week with Shrimpy being called a woolly headed git due to some over vigorous play during the 1st half. 

The final score was 39 - 5. Hard to single players out from such a good team effort but the good performances in recent weeks have been the result of some good work by the tight 5 in the scrum and lineout work complemented by
the loose forwards which has given the backline some front foot ball to work with.

Ohai Nightcaps were excellent hosts, they have a long history as a club and the photos on the wall show they have always been a strong team in their sub union and have produced a number of Southland reps. 

Dress code for the trip back to Vegas was brown leather jackets, singlet and trackpants with optional Old Boys (1980s era) powder blue dress jerseys that Johnsy had found stashed away at the clubrooms.

A couple of guys played their last game for the season on Sat:  Dupree who played his first full game (after popping his dislocated thumb back in) is off to work in a gulag for a month or so. Shrimpy who has been on top of his game in recent weeks is moving away to work up in Canterbury, his experience and leadership will be a big loss.

The next two weeks see us at home for games against Star and Marist.

First game back for the boys after the school holidays, they were a wee bit rusty in the first half against a committed Marist team however once the forwards got into their work the passing and support play started to improve and some good tries were scored. Marist never gave up, they ran hard and straight when they had the ball and deserved their two tries with Ed Laidlaw showing out with some good runs off the back of the scrum. 

Up front for POB Luke, Callan, Callum, Ben, James  and Bryn had great games which paved the way for the win. Bryn had a great run towards the end of the 2nd half and is getting better with each game.

Player of the day was Callum Robertson.