Manukura girls in to national schools rugby final

Manukura are through to their fourth national girls rugby final and second in a row, while Palmerston North Boys’ High School fell in the semifinal.

The national top four schools finals are in Palmerston North this weekend and Manukura will play Hamilton Girls’ High School in Sunday’s final after they beat Christchurch Girls’ High School 36-12 in the semifinal at the Arena on Friday.

Hamilton beat Mount Albert Grammar School 28-5 in their semifinal.

The boys final will be between Westlake Boys’ High School, who beat Tauranga Boys’ College 43-40, and Southland Boys’ High School, who beat Palmerston North 20-19.

It is the third time Manukura have been to the final in the past four tournaments. They drew with Christchurch last year, there were no tournaments the previous two years due to Covid-19, they lost in the semifinal in 2019 and lost the final in 2018 to Hamilton.

Manukura had the wind behind them in the first half against Christchurch and led 24-12 at the break. Then after a long period of gutsy defence, including 10 minutes with centre Nia Sutherland in the sin bin due to repeated penalties, they scored two breakout tries.

Coach Kristine Sue said they prided themselves on their defence and they had to do a lot of tackling.

“We weren’t comfortable with that 12-point lead [at halftime],” she said. “We knew they would stay in the fight.

“We were in a similar situation last year, we knew they weren’t going to give up.”

Manukura had a good platform to attack from their lineout and their backline caused many problems for Christchurch.

Second five-eighth Manaia Blake was a threat – setting up one of their late tries and scoring the other – and halfback Maia Davis was influential.

Lock Anyis Drossaerts-Lake, No 8 Te Maia Sweetman and openside flanker Elley-May Taylor were the pick of the Palmerston North school’s forwards.

Meanwhile, Palmerston North Boys’ High School will be disappointed with their showing against Southland Boys’ High School.

Having conceded an early try, Palmerston North had their best period of the game and scored two tries to lead 12-5 midway through the first half.

But they made too many mistakes throughout the game and kept letting Southland back into it.

Pushed passes, penalties, turnovers and going wide too early let Southland, who played simple rugby, off the hook too many times.

Gun fullback Ryder Crosswell scored a try to give Palmerston North a 19-17 lead midway through the second half, but Southland knocked over a penalty with 12 minutes to go, then held the home team out.

Hooker Eli Oudenryn was yellow carded in the first half for an infringement at a Southland lineout drive on the Boys’ High line.

Flanker Tom Illston-Park stood out with his bustling runs.

Sunday’s draw at the Arena:

Girls:

10.15am: Third-and-fourth-place playoff: MAGS v Christchurch.

12.40pm: Final: Hamilton v Manukura.

Boys:

11.45am: Third-and-fourth-place playoff: Palmerston North v Tauranga.

10.30pm: Final: Westlake v Southland.