Kaitaia Mini Mod Competition

It would sound bizarre to say that this was an improved performance from the Northern Swords with a scoreline of 80 – 10, however, for 40 minutes of the game, the Swords were competitive against the Akarana Falcons.  In the first forty minutes the Swords showed resilience and pride in their defence line, looked dangerous on attack and looked like a football team capable of competing at a National Level.  They went into half-time trailing by 22 – 10, with tries to hard working loose forward, Kelsin Harding and skipper Joel Freeman.

However, the second half saw a 58 point trouncing by the boys from Akarana as they put on a scintillating display of Rugby League.  The Northern boys, to their credit, never gave up, but it simply wasn’t their day.  Coach Mark Freeman although disappointed, was proud of the first half effort.  “We have had a couple of personnel issues over the last couple of weeks, however we still have a dedicated group of lads.  Akarana showed the difference between a semi professional competition (Fox Memorial Cup) and the Northland competition.  Our goal is to travel to Canterbury in a fortnight to finish the season and then put some plans in place for 2015.  We have more talent and ability than what we are showing, so it’s about putting a plan together.

Final result:  Akarana Falcon 80 –  Northern Swords 10.

In the Swords Bye week they had a good work out against the John Ackland coached, Auckland U20s Representative Team, on a wet sodden Bluegoose, in Whangarei on Saturday the 6^th of September.  John Ackland, who is now the Auckland CEO is more known as the first Warriors Coach to win an Australian League Championship, when he coached the Elijah Taylor Captained Champion U20s title in 2010.

The Auckland U20s team is comprised of players not selected for Akarana and Counties Manukau who are U20 years of age.  Most of the team plays in the Fox and Sharman Cup, so play a week in and week out quality competition.

The Auckland team lead 22 – 6 at half time.  However, the second half saw a spirited Swords team almost snatch the game from Auckland.  With less than 10 minutes left on the clock, the Swords had fought back to a 26 – 22 deficit and were hot on attack, only for the boys from Auckland to go the length of the field to score and break the spirit of the come-back.  Auckland scored two more late tries to win 38 – 22.

Coach Mark Freeman was happy with the result.  “We had a number of key players unavailable due to family commitments so it was a good opportunity to give some fringe players a run.  We showed a lot of guts and determination and were able to improve on some combinations.  Dean Shreurs and Daniel Fulop looked good in the halves and linked well with hooker, Joel Freeman.  Our props Chris Apoua, Andre Lennox and Elliot Pomare again showed they can match it with quality opposition, while Chris Mellar-Reynolds was dynamic at Fullback.”

The Swords travel to Whanganui to play the Mid Central Vipers on Sunday the 14^th. The Vipers will be looking to bounce back from their disappointing loss to Counties Manukau 60 – 0 in the weekend.  The Vipers are the only team that the Swords have beaten in the National Competition, when they defeated them in 40 – 22 in 2013.  However, the Vipers shocked the Wellington Orcas 32 – 22 in round two and narrowly lost 18 – 12 to table topping Canterbury Bulls.

In the other match played at the Bluegoose last Saturday, the Auckland U18s as expected, were too strong for the Swords 17s defeating them 52 – 0.  Coach Benson Selwyn, was pragmatic, “We rested 6 players from Boys High who played at the Secondary School Nations, the Auckland team were physically that much stronger, but we took some good learnings from the game.  Our next match will be against the Wai-Coa-Bay Colt U17s on September 21^st at Toll Stadium before we head to the Nationals in Rotorua between the 29^th September and the 3^rd of October.