It’s semi-final footy time; and Katikati First XV have earned a home semi-final to boot! Next week Katikati will have a rematch against the team they beat on Saturday, as 2nd placed Katikati play 3rd placed Rotorua Boys High (RBHS). While the game on Saturday was called off early (more about that later), there was nothing to detract from the way the boys played to their strengths and took a strangle-hold over the opposition. Our boys started the first half as strongly as we have ever seen them, and they denied RBHS much ball at all for the best part of the half. The dominance shown by the forwards was put to good use, with a number of really good drives only marred at the end by a bit of over eagerness which led to lost ball when they were hard on attack. There were possibly 2 or 3 tries they denied themselves. Nevertheless, 2 good tries to Montell Pinny and Charlie Tuimaualuga, both unconverted, saw Katikati earn a 10 point lead by half way through the first half. The team seemed to go off the boil in the last 10 minutes of this half, and if it wasn’t for some very determined defence, may well not have held a narrow lead of 10-7 at half-time. A good team talk and some refocus saw them start the second half on fire. By three quarter time, Montell and Charlie had each added a second try and Katikati were leading 20-7. One of the most pleasing aspects of their play was the way the inside backs adjusted to the referee’s off-side calls. Unfortunately RBHS could not and a couple of yellow and then a couple of red cards led to the game being called off early. Kick-off next week will be at 12:00 at Katikati College.
Posted on: Mon, 11 Aug 2014 02:05:05 +0000