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Northern Advocate....By Peter Thorley
Northland Maori Colts went close but ultimately failed to record back-to-back victories on Saturday losing their final against Waikato 20-27. As the score at Old Boys showed, the two teams slugged it out in a close match, with the visiting side posting the match-winning try in the final five minutes of the match.
The Northland team were marginally the better side in the first spell, building a 13-5 lead at the break, thanks to three Tyler Landsdowne kicks and a rampaging run by Jordan Wikitera off the back of the scrum to dot down. Waikato started the second spell well, gaining the territorial advantage and dominating possession so it was no surprise when they scored their second try of the match after 56 minutes. The scores were tied with a penalty midway through the spell.
The Waikato forwards took another opportunity shortly afterwards and the try helped shake the Northland side out of their reverie. They began to compete with more intent and got back into the game in the final quarter. Rhys Te Nana charged down a clearing kick and pounced on the ball before it rolled out of play. With Jordan Karena adding a fine conversion from the sideline the two sides were locked together at 20-all.
Both teams threw the ball around in the final 10 minutes looking for the winner but it was a skip pass to Waikato's Jarelle Murphy that proved to be the difference.
The conversion also landed for Waikato but when Northland pressed forward trying to get back in the game their luck ran out - with a maul ruled held up over the Waikato goal line. Waikato reacted better from the resulting 5m scrum, causing a tight-head and winning the game. The ending summed up the game for one of the Colts coaches Brad Te Haara.``Our set-piece wasn't quite there today, we didn't win as much ball as we should have and that starved our backs of the ball,'' he said. The boys defended pretty well I thought but we will have to wait until next year to win the title again - we've got quite a few players who will be back again,'' he added.
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