Collegiate takes a battering in Quadrangular tournament

David Ogilvie | 27th July 2010

Wanganui Collegiate hoped for better than the 67 points its rugby team gave away against Wellington College yesterday - but there were some compensations.

Wellington has won the Quadrangular seven years in a row, and there would be only a few after yesterday who would suggest the eighth is not the favourite fate tomorrow in the final.

But Nelson College, a physically bigger team than Collegiate, edged past Christs College 25-24 in the curtainraiser with enough skill to suggest they will be a decent chance.

And they produced a couple of the best players of yesterday's first day in the Quadrangular in fullback James Lowe and 14-year-old first-five Fletcher Smith.

Yes, 14 years old. Nelson coach Ross Leinert noted with some glee that Smith had another potential three years left at school. He was neat and accomplished and clearly capable of taking on responsibility.

The long-legged Lowe, apparently much sought after, had very good skills and no little pace.

But probably the player of the day, and the one Wanganui could not contain, was Wellington College No 8 and captain, and Hurricanes U18 player Tupou Spopaga.

He scored four tries in Wellington's 67-12 win with a mixture of pace, power, guile and an ability to place himself in the best place at the right time.

Wellington had more to offer than just him. As Wanganui coach Bruce Middleton said, 'they're a very slick side" - and they were that from fullback Andrew Wells right through to the loosehead prop Eti Sului, who picked up a couple of tries with very good handling skills.

True, they lost the plot occasionally because they found it all a bit easy, and made quite a few handling errors. but they have several ways of attacking, in particular threading Collegiate's blindside defence with consummate ease.

They also had very big ball winners in locks Joe Latta and Hoani Te Moana.

Collegiate, at least, kept trying very hard and finally cracked Wellington's defence with two lovely second half tries - and that will help morale.

The first went to lock Duncan Macphee after a slick lineout move where it was split, the ball given to the winger comning through and off-loaded to lock Macphee.

The second went to one of the side's hardest triers, left wing Zain Khan, after an initital break by first-five Te Rui Wirihana, who then threw a loose pass - which was beautifully snapped up by centre Lachlan Watson who put Khan away.

Notable in collegiate's effort were No 7 Larne Collins, Macphee, Khan and the midfield tacklers Freeman Houltham and Watson.

Middleton had hoped for better:

"They're a very good side. But the boys mostly tackled well - and we played a high risk game. We have to because we're not going to have them on up front.

"And we just made too many basic mistakes, got flustered and once it gets away from you it's very hard to get yourself back in the game."

Tomorrow (subs: Wednesday) Wanganui plays Christs in the losers final - and will do that tough as well. That match is at 1.30am, the winners final between Wellington and Nhelson at 12.45pm.