Under 21 Men's Final
The match begun at break-neck speed with both teams trying to out-enthuse one another. A repeat set by Canterbury provided the first true scoring opportunity but the final pass sailed wide and the early advantage with it.
From their next set Auckland blitzed down the field and fed the ball to William Raea who provided some fancy footwork to evade the middle defenders and score.
Canterbury then provided a one-two combo to get themselves into the lead; first Nick Rapana snaked under the touch to plant the ball and then another nice play out wide to brought the scores to 2-1.
Auckland's Ethan Thompson soon found space out wide thanks to a sly cut-out pass to bring the scores level again.
The next two touchdowns from both teams were all class. First Canterbury took the lead after Thomas Jarrold produced a sly short pass for Rapana to score his second. The lead was shirt-lived; Auckland were close to the line and sent a long ball out side to Sean Law who dived spectacularly over his defending winger for the score.
Canterbury managed another touchdown through Tom Turner at the conclusion of the half to go up 3-2 at halftime.
Rapana continued to stamp his name on the game as the second stanza begun, diving over in the middle to give his team a 2-touchdown buffer for the first time.
It took a while for Auckland to warm up but eventually Callum Law found himself free in the in goal and managed to find Thompson again to reduce the lead by one. Sean Law then continued the Auckland fightback, shaping to pass but diving over himself to lock the scores at 5-5 with 10 mins to go.
When William Taltaina-Mu snapped up an intercept and sped away to score Auckland suddenly had the lead, not long after, the blues scored again it was 7-5 with Canterbury having a mountain to climb to get back in it.
Sean Murray provided the spark for Canterbury, diving over in the middle but on the return set Jared Tauiwi matched Murray's effort and it was 8-6 Auckland's way. The hooter sounded not long after and Auckland were crowned Under 21 Men's Champions.
Last Modified on 03/03/2013 06:25
