Nelson College has finished their first XV regular season campaign with an unblemished record.
A 43-29 win over St Andrew’s College on the school’s front field establishes them as the number one seed going into the playoffs.
With STAC playing for pride, they threw everything at Nelson College in a game which saw multiple swings in momentum.
The visitors would score first in both halves, but weren’t able to keep up with the class of Nelson College.
After conceding the opening try, a runaway intercept, the home side were quick to bounce back as winger Michael De Beer found himself in space with a significant overlap, scoring in the corner.
Minutes later, he was in for his second as Harry Inch and Saumaki Saumaki combined to create a line break from halfway before the ball was swung wide and into space again.
A penalty kept STAC in touch, but Harry was a class above as he bounced his way through several tackles before delivering the offload to Mikey Morrision which saw both wingers score in the opening minutes.
Nelson College would score again to close out the first half, with Saumaki crashing over from a pick and go after Mikey was pulled down just short of the line.
With a 26-10 half time lead and Nelson College traditionally finishing strong, it looked like they would run away with the game.
But the visitors would score first on the back of a brilliant 50-22 kick to set up a five metre lineout, with the two teams trading tries throughout the second half.
While Nelson College never let them get close enough to be a threat, it wasn’t the best rugby they’ve played to date this season.
Early on, they struggled against fast line speed, while later errors kept their opposition in the game.
Captain Harry Inch says he was “chuffed” to get the result from a team that wouldn’t give up.
“Obviously STAC have got a lot of year 13s in their team and with it being their last game of the season they threw the kitchen sink at us.
“They capitalised on our mistakes, they were really good at that.”
He says they recognised in their review coming into the game that STAC traditionally started strong.
“That first 20 minutes, they bring everything. We managed to hold on and once we’d weathered the storm, it went alright.
“I’m really happy with the performance.”
With the team to face their Tasman rivals in Marlborough Boys College next weekend, Harry says they are eager to get stuck into the postseason.
“It’s do or die footy. We’ll come up front and put our best foot forward.”
