Bulls Crush Plucky Shamrocks
After conceding an early intercept try against the run of play, The University Bulls powered on to score nine tries in a 60 points to 7 demolition of a plucky young Shamrocks outfit at University Oval. With both sides missing key players for this round 12 IDRU Builders Club Premiership match the Bulls proved way too powerful for a Shamrocks sides who tried valiantly to the final whistle.
University spent the first seven minutes of the match camped in the Shamrocks half, but some poor handling and option taking saw three try scoring opportunities go begging. In the middle of another University backline raid, Shamrocks fullback Liam Vuik took the cleanest of intercepts and raced eighty meters to score the first try of the match under the posts. Vuik converted his own try for Shamrocks to lead 7 – 0.
Five minutes later Bulls center
Tyler Aitkin set off on one of his trademark jinking runs from fifty meters out and after working an exchange of passes with his center partner Nick Rangiuira, Aitkin scored his side’s first try after twelve minutes. Uni bombed another try with poor handling ten minutes later before Leon Mason added his first goal for the afternoon for the Bulls to take the lead 8 – 5, at the twenty minute mark.
With the University forwards starting to overpower their smaller but spirited opponents, the Uni backs continued to raid away until Nick Rangiuira finished a smart backline play to score and with Leon Mason’s conversion Uni led 15 – 7. Hardworking front rower Andy Papworth added another try from a driving maul five minutes from halftime, and with another conversion from Mason, Uni went to the break 22 – 7 in front.
The second half was a total whitewash
Uni running in six more tries against a completely overpowered Shamrocks outfit who couldn’t match the power and drive of the much larger Uni pack. Wayne Ngatai and Alex Simms scored tries with hard running winger Jade Gardiner and one of Uni’s best, Hemana Wickliffe, each scoring a double. Leon Mason added four more conversion for the Bulls to rack up sixty points.
Despite being completely overpowered up front the Rocks kept turning up right through to the end but with a considerable size disadvantage couldn’t go with the Bulls. The Bulls scrum pushed the Rocks off the ball several times against the feed and their power at the breakdown was much superior. For Shamrocks young fullback Liam Vuik was valiant in both attack and defense with Jordan Whitehead and Chris Smith in the forwards playing above their weight.
The Uni front row of Papworth
Wickliffe and Karl Smith were once again outstanding for the winners, with lock Mitch Bell and the ever present Wayne Ngatai making strong contributions to the win. Winger Jade Gardiner was lethal whenever the ball came his way with his centers Aitkin and Rangiuira providing him with many opportunities. Veteran fly-half Leon Mason put in another masterful display igniting the sides attack throughout the match.