On a sad day for Northland Rugby and probably more so, the Mid Northern club following the passing of legend Sid Going, thier prem side stepped up in the warm autumn sun in front of a healthy crowd, handed Kamo thier first defeat of the year, taking the lollies 43-26.
The game started pretty evenly, with Kamo making all the play, but as seemed the way for most of the game, MN got out of trouble, got down the other end and scored.
First score was on a 30m run from prop Chris Apoua where he finished by running over the fullback.
It would be another 15 minutes before Kamo got on the scoreboard as Rob Rush tried to put in a kick that was charged down and regathered by flanker Harry Lowther to run another 40m to score.
Soon after, some great MN forward work had Kamo sprawled all over and Rob Rush ran through 3 players on his way to regain the lead, and then right on the stroke of halftime, Kiwi Duncan showed his express pace to run in from about 40m as MN went into the break up 17-5.
MN put the heat on early in the 2nd through lock Terepai King, picking up the first of his 3 tries, but Kamo was hanging in with thier reserve hooker Blake Haora who was on much earlier than expected with an early injury as they tried to stay in touch as MN threatened to run away.
Terepai King then scored again, and several minutes later his locking partner Darcy Holwell picked up his own under the sticks to seal the win at 36-12 and threaten to run away with it.
Kamo didnt drop thier game as halfback Donald Boyd bagged two tries in the last 10 to show his strength and pace, while surely the try of the match was a 110m effort by MN that was finished by King.
Kamo were hot on attack, and looked for all money to score, but somehow Kiwi Duncan managed to nab the ball behind the tryline and ran across to clear the defence and then broke to the 22 before passing and then the ball was punted down field. Terepai King with a start over Duncan showed a clean pair of heels to regather on the 22 with only Duncan as competition for the ball to round out a great afternoon for the big man.
Kamo just made too many errors at crucial times and were punished, often resulting in points.
For the visitors, Rob Rush always stands out, although had a couple of moments he wont be happy with, Zac Shanks, Chris Apoua, Remsy Lemisio were all very busy, Duncan has all the ingredients to move up through the ranks, raw pace and power, just needs to be moulded. Jordan Olsen back at hooker for this game was into everything as always, this dude just keeps on throwing his body into everything.
For Kamo, prop Iose Brown gave MN reasons not to run at him, but they did, and kept getting knocked back, and he formed part of a solid front row performance against a much stronger outfit with 3 NPC players in opposition. Kamo's loose trio had thier moments and worked hard, but werent able to keep up the intensity for 80, while Donald Boyd at 9 and Nikau Graham at 10 were key for Kamo.
Both sides had a few players scratched due to illness or injury, so it may give Kamo a glimmer that they can be much better as both teams will no doubt have one eye already on a semi final spot.
In the other games, all went as expected, although the Wellsford - HH game was a higher scoring game than I thought, and apparently Rene Ranger was playing at 9 and put in a good showing, while Liam Hallam-Eames and Jordan Hyland made rare appearances, apparently for Wellsford hooker, Stuart Oldfields 300th match, so was a great result for him.
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Former team mates, Harry Lowther and Darcy Holwell compete in the air
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