The Halswell Hornets Premiers have opened up a six point buffer for second spot over the Hornby Panthers after dispatching of the Northern Bulldogs on the weekend. A strong second half performance by the Hornets gave them a huge lead over a Bulldogs side that was missing several of its stars. The Hornets were dominant for the majority of the game, but failed to put more points on the board. As was expected, the result blew out in the second half and the Hornets walked away from Murphy Park as comfortable winners 42–4.
The dominance of the red, black and gold was seen right from kick off as Jaye Pukepuke busted through two tacklers to gain some early metres. However a couple of plays later, the Hornets turned the ball over, given Northern an opportunity to cross the Hornets line. They made the most of their position with Tony Loffhagen rolling over the line to open the scoring. However, this was as close as the Bulldogs would get in the game, with the majority of the game being played with the Hornets on attack. Not long after Loffhagen’s try, captain Toi Sepuloni hit back with a try of his own, while Matt Sauni continued his hot try scoring form with the first of his two tries before half time. The Hornets took a slight lead into half time, which they were disappointed with after failing to capitalise on the raft of opportunities they had to score. The Hornets’ possession and territory took its toll on the Bulldogs defence in the second half as they scored a number of tries to extend their lead. Erwin Sauni showed great support play from fullback to open the scoring in the second-half. While score sheet showed players with 1-7 on their backs scoring all of the points, the forwards did the damage in the middle creating space of the speed men out wide. Manu Weepu showed a perfect display of the draw and pass to send Aaron Endacott over out wide, while Pukepuke orchestrated a great offload to see Matt Sauni score his second of the afternoon and end the scoring.
With battered and bruised bodies after 8 weeks of solid competition, Queen’s Birthday weekend provides a break for some of the Hornets Premiers. However a number of them will be representing Canterbury against Wellington in the Centenary Game at AMI Stadium (1.00pm Sunday 3 June). After the week’s break from the CRL Competition, the Premiers return the Hornets’ Nest against the Hornby Panthers for our Club Day. Our arch-rivals, the Panthers, will be looking to narrow the buffer between second and third on the table, and ruin our Club Day Celebrations!! Bar their narrow loss to ladder leaders, the Linwood Keas, the Panthers have been travelling well and will put up a huge fight against our Premiers. So this weekend support our boys in the Canterbury side, and then get ready for the Club Day battle with the Panthers! There will be games on all day at the Nest, so we will look forward to seeing you supporting all of our Hornets teams, your mighty Halswell Hornets Premiers, who will kick off at 2.45pm, 8th June at Halswell Domain!
Go the mighty Hornets!!!
Halswell Hornets 42 – Tries: Matt Sauni (2), Toi Sepuloni, Rowan Swain, Aaron Endacott, Erwin Sauni, Manu Weepu, Brad Austin; Goals: Toi Sepuloni (4), Erwin Sauni (1);
Northern Bulldogs 4 – Try: Tony Loffhagen.
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