NZ Herald Weekly College Sport Column

MAGS barnstorm their way to victory

MAGS continued their barnstorming season with a come-from-behind 18-6 win over long-time rivals King's College at Eden Park to claim the Auckland 1A championship on Saturday.

It was a two-tries-to-none effort from MAGS in a game which rarely flowed freely given referee Shaun Elliott's somewhat pedantic rulings.

Simon Hickey gave King's fans something to cheer about with an early penalty to which Matt McGahan replied in a like manner.

Capitalising on the good work by their pack which kept the King's forwards on the back foot, MAGS eventually turned pressure into points when Damon Niko scored close to the posts. McGahan added the extras for 10-3 - the lead they held at the break.

King's produced patches of solid play in the second spell, especially when their forwards could force their way into MAGS territory. They got close enough early for Hickey to kick a second penalty and close the gap to four points.

Stung into action, MAGS went on the offensive and a great counter-attack led by Milford Keresoma and Louis Devery paved the way for Albert Nikoro to score and cap a great team effort.

McGahan completed the scoring with a late penalty.

Today MAGS are back in action at Shadbolt Park when they meet Northland champions Whangarei BHS with the winner to meet the yet-to-be-determined North Harbour winners next week to find the Blues franchise representative in the national Top Four competition.


FOOTBALL

Goal difference may be needed to find the inaugural premier league champions after MAGS dropped two vital points in playing out a 2-2 draw against Sacred Heart after leading 2-0 in shocking conditions at MAGS.

That let AGS back in the race as they saw off St Peter's 3-1 in equally bad conditions at Oceania Park.

AGS now trail MAGS by three points but have a game in hand - next Wednesday over bottom-placed Kristin.

Before that they must beat Rangitoto at AGS on Saturday while MAGS face WBHS.


HOCKEY

Diocesan warmed up for tomorrow's inter-city semifinal against old rivals St Cuthbert's with a far-from-convincing 2-0 final round-robin win over EGGS, who missed a top four finish and will play-off for fifth against King's at King's.

A strong run on the left led to Victoria MacCulloch's opening goal for Diocesan after 21 minutes. The scoring was completed at the same stage in the second spell by Georgia Gourdie.

In the other semifinal, top qualifiers Rangitoto - they headed Diocesan and St Cuthbert's on goal difference - meet North Harbour rivals Kristin.

The boys' semifinals are tonight with King's at home to AGS and WBHS meeting Pukekohe at North Harbour.


LAWN BOWLS

Dilworth's bowlers are ready to mix it with the big boys (and girls) after emerging as top qualifiers in the Auckland inter-school tournament heading into Monday's quarter-finals at Remuera BC.

AGS and Henderson High are well-placed with two teams in the last eight.

In round three (final) action AGS A had three convincing wins over Diocesan, allowing St Cuthbert's to qualify as second team in that section.

The AGS B team were made to work much harder before beating a talented and improving AGGS team.

At New Lynn, last year's beaten finalist KBHS beat MRGS to win that section from Lynfield, who shared the points with St Dominic's but made post-section on shot differential.


NETBALL
AUCKLAND

One of the great rivalries will be renewed tonight when, for the third year in a row, defending champions MAGS meet 2008 winners EGGS in the premier final at the Auckland Netball Centre.

In the senior A final (curtainraiser) the same two schools will square off.

Both premier teams are loaded with talent. Leading the way for MAGS will be NZ SS representatives Erikana Pederson and Tera-Maria Amani, under-17 Auckland/Waitakere representative Rebecca Roache and Auckland under-15 representative Jamie-Lee Price. EGGS have under-17 Auckland/Waitakere representatives Chonaire Huriwai and Aleesha Coulter and under-17 player Abbey Barry.

The two teams met a fortnight ago and although MAGS won by eight goals, both coaches took that opportunity to play their bench, not wanting to give too much away.

MAGS had the easier lead-up to the finals with a convincing semifinal win over St Kentigern, while EGGS had to fight all the way against an AGGS team desperate to get back into the finals after a two-year absence. However EGGS showed their fighting spirit in holding out for a three-goal 30-27 win.

NORTH HARBOUR

Perennial pace-setters Rangitoto and WGHS are again dominating the AMI premier competition as the business end of the season approaches.

While winning the championship is foremost for these long-time rivals, and Rangitoto are ahead only on goal difference with the next best team seven points back, they also have an eye on the Upper North Island SS Tournament starting on August 30 and beyond that the national tournament.

The North Harbour title will be decided when the pair meet on Saturday week.

Rangitoto did have something of a scare against a promising Carmel team who, continuing the good form they had shown in their previous outing against WGHS, went close to an upset.

For most of the match the scores were even with teams going goal for goal, however with the sharp shooting of Year 10 player Waldi Kamffer partnered with experienced goal-attack Catilin Campbell, Rangitoto prevailed 25-18.

This week's game of the round is between Carmel and Northcote with Carmel just one point above Northcote on the competition ladder.


RUGBY
NORTH HARBOUR

Old rivals WBHS and Rosmini College will run out at North Harbour Stadium tomorrow to contest another 1A final.

The season-decider will be the curtainraiser to North Harbour's ITM Cup clash with Otago, with the winner claiming not only the schools title but also hosting rights for next Tuesday's match with the winner of today's game between MAGS and Whangarei BHS for the right to represent the Blues franchise in the national Top Four championship.

In tight semifinals WBHS beat Massey 11-3 in a game full of handling errors in difficult conditions.

Jacob Botica (WBHS) and Jordan Jacobs (Massey) traded penalties for 3-3 before WBHS eventually got the ball wide to Leti Tago, who scored the only try. A second Botica penalty stretched the lead to 11-3 before halftime.

There was no further scoring.

Rosmini beat Orewa 13-10 but needed a penalty try to do it.

Orewa, needing to win to make the final and retain the Woodhouse Shield, missed an early penalty but went 7-0 ahead when John McCarthy scored in the 12th minute and Andrew Fluker added the extras.

Rosmini then had a player yellow-carded but Orewa could not capitalise and Rosmini closed the gap when Rodrigo Costa nailed a penalty for 7-3. He banged over a second for 7-6 before Fluker kicked one for 10-6.

When a Rosmini player was tackled early, the penalty try was awarded to which Costa added the extra two points to end the scoring.