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Varsity have won Hankins Shield finals with three raging comebacks in the past 12 seasons, but surely none from such deep water as they did in toppling College Old Boys 34-33 in this year’s final.
Even a drunken bookmaker wouldn’t have taken odds on the students escaping from a 33-12 deficit with 37 minutes to go at the Arena on Saturday after a wayward pass gifted COB a try three minutes after halftime.
Former Manawatū front rower Nick Grogan, playing his last game, told the Varsity players that was it, no more points to be bled.
And they didn’t, amazingly scoring three more tries to win. The final try, to halfback Regan Sword, came in the 89th minute after Varsity battered the COB line for more than 10 minutes.
Referee Matty McEwan held his composure as COB sinned in defensive desperation and when prop Sean Paranihi and hooker Cory Purton were binned, they were down to 13 men.
The final scrums had to be depowered, so COB had to lock in eight men and when a back was sent in, the inevitable breach happened.
Harking back, there was a parallel when Varsity also won the 2011 final with an injury-time try against Te Kawau, then also coached by COB’s current coach Bryan Matenga. Varsity first five-eighth Scott Davidson also played in that one.
He scored the try of the day on Saturday which had the crowd gasping during the bounce back, when he somehow caught a low offload from that most elusive wing, TamaToa Ropati.
In 2016, Koli Sewabu’s Varsity team clawed back from 17-6 down to beat Kia Toa 18-17 with Grogan, Sam Tufuga and Reece Brosnan in that lineup. They had only qualified third.
COB won last year after finishing fourth, but this time Varsity did the same after finishing 20 competition points behind COB. They only got to this final thanks to a Logan Henry try in the final minute against table-toppers Old Boys-Marist.
MURRAY WILSON
Varsity celebrate winning the Hankins Shield.
COB were chasing their 31st Hankins Shield title, while it was Varsity’s 21st in their 94 years.
Since 2010, the only multiple winners have been Varsity, COB and Feilding.
Varsity co-coach Scott Lewis happily exhaled and threatened retirement with his young family when he won his first Hankins after seven seasons and using 47 players this year. It was co-coach Blair van Stipriaan’s fifth attempt.
However, they were mortified at how their team started on Saturday, down 19-0 after 17 minutes with COB halfback Vince Tahiwi-Macmillan and the backs finding holes to put wing Joeli Rauca, out of Suva Grammar School and Hastings Boys’ High School, over for three slick tries.
Varsity’s bigger forwards were making an impact to bring it back to 19-12 only to seemingly see the final out of sight with COB’s two tries in three minutes either side of halftime.
It got worse for who Varsity lost; lock Mickey Woolliams (dislocated shoulder) early, Turbos lock Josh Taula (knee), then big men Matt Masoe and Etika Vudiniabola off injured, Grogan and No 8 Julian Goerke were on one leg, and Ropati was binned. No chance, not into the wind.
MURRAY WILSON
College Old Boys wing Joeli Rauca celebrates scoring one of his three tries.
COB had Turbos flanker Elyjah Crosswell and hooker Purton playing with pain-killing injections, and their best forward, hooker Leif Schwencke, later limped off. For Varsity, Sam Tufuga was mighty with his carries as were Grogan, Goerke, Joe Tako and the industrious flanker Cody Borlase.
For COB, second-five James Tofa was lethal, but props Isaac Tupa’i and David Braddock had to have two stints. Turbos prop Paranihi flew up from Linwood in Christchurch to play his first game after being given dispensation because of the shortage of props.
It was probably Grogan’s swansong: “I was extremely proud of how we stuck in there and kept our composure.
“Six finals and two wins; it was nice to finish with a W. It was a long time coming after three losses to Feilding.”
And he recalled they had to go 100 metres to win their semifinal at the end against OBM.
COB coach Matenga was gutted to be rundown, but felt his men were bruised up from the semifinal against the big Kia Toa forwards.
MURRAY WILSON
Varsity wing TamaToa Ropati takes on the College Old Boys defence.
“We didn’t use the wind enough in the second half and they had a good bench coming on.
“I’m proud of our boys at College. They’ve got plenty of heart.”
Van Stipriaan praised COB for being a very efficient side.
“Their defence in the last 15 minutes was phenomenal. We knew we would come home really well.”
Scorers:
Varsity 34 (Kaoru Tsurata, Nick Grogan, Sam Coles, Scott Davidson, Joe Tako, Regan Sword, tries; Logan Henry 2 con) College OB 31 (Joeli Rauca 3, Jared Sellwood, Ben Minhinnick, tries; Jack Eschenbach 3 con) HT 12-26.
Other finals: Senior 2, Feilding Old Boys-Ōroua 51 COB 19. Senior 3: Bunnythorpe 38 Massey Vets 15. Colts: COB 32 Feilding 15.
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