North Shore teams dominate old foe

A crowd of more than 2000 watched North Shore beat Takapuna to win the North Harbour rugby championship

Shore went into the final undefeated and duly proved too strong for a young Takapuna side, but the North Harbour championship wasn’t won without a fight.

In a torrid first half, Takapuna dominated for the first 30 minutes. However, in the last 10 minutes of the half, Shore’s uncompromising pack gained ascendency and cracks seemed to appear in Takapuna’s resolve.

Shore went into the sheds with a 6-3 lead, then came out firing. Gang-tackling around the edges and two to three men out from the ruck knocked Takapuna back again and again, with their dangerous number eight Lotu Inisi seldom breaking the advantage line.

Pressure built and the mistakes from the blue-and-golds mounted: knock-ons and breakdown penalties, and the odd missed touch by Takapuna’s classy first-five Jack Heighton, allowed Shore to dominate field position. And that was all Oscar Koller needed to keep the ball ahead of his forwards, deep in Takapuna territory.

Thirteen minutes into the second half, skipper Alex Woonton was driven over. Koller converted and a couple of minutes later made a clean break to score wide out for an 18-3 lead.

Takapuna muffed the kick-off, and the pressure continued to build. After 27 minutes, another ruck penalty 40 metres out was kicked by Koller for 21-3, and the trophy seemed all but in the cabinet.

a fend

Replacement Takapuna lock Tristyn Cook scored a try against the run of play, which