What was going to be a home match was a late change, which meant that we had a 2 hour trip to Taumarunui. To make matters worse we only had 10 minutes to warm up and were soundly beaten 14 to 38.
Although Taumarunui had the bigger pack, our team never gave up. The lack of preparation soon showed and Taumarunui was scoring at regular intervals. Our first half try was scored by Sean Rudman who showed a lot of pace with a run away try.
We were down 7 – 21 at half time and were unlucky not to score on many other occasions. During the last 10 minutes, Hillcrest dominated territory but unfortunately couldn’t turn the domination into points.                                            
Our second half try was scored by Kapri George who followed up on an up & under kick made by Sonny Rau.
This was definitely our worse game to date, but not surprising because of the long trip and only 8 players being able to train during the week, mainly because of sickness.                                                                                      
Standout players were Travis Amai, Sonny Rau and Ihaka Barton.
Try scorers were; Sean Rudman & Kapri George. Sonny Rau was successful with 2 conversions.
A big thanks to the parents and relations who transported the boys to and from the match.
The next game is against Forest View High at Tokoroa on Saturday. It will be a tough match as Forest View had beaten Taumarunui 24 -12 2 weeks prior. This will be our last ‘out of Hamilton’ match with the following 4 matches being at home and the final match being at St Johns High.
Mark Eldridge