THE season has ended for the Pakuranga premier side after they lost their Dave Gallaher Shield semi-final to Grammar Carlton 23-7 in Auckland club rugby last Saturday.
Similar to their last trip to Cornwall Park, rain arrived just before kick-off and Pakuranga were hoping for a repeat of their upset round robin victory.
Coach Wayne Pivac says the Pakuranga players went to Cornwall Park with a feeling of self-belief after achieving there in earlier in the season.
Pakuranga started well, dominated territory but failed to score points, in front of a huge crowd that travelled from East Auckland.
While Pakuranga worked hard to maintain territory, Grammar Carlton impressed on the counter attack and it led to their first try. An inspired cross-field kick by Grammar first-five Ash Moeke saw winger Watisoni Lotawa gather and score.
A penalty to Moeke extended the lead to 8-0. The Pakuranga defence couldn’t hold out the powerful Grammar prop Paea Fa’anunu, who scored not long before halftime, leaving Pakuranga 13-0 behind at the break.
“We were disappointed with the weather. Those sort of conditions made it less of a spectacle as it cut out any open play,” says Pivac.
The weather calmed in the second half as Pakuranga got back into the game. The forwards did some good work that was rewarded with a try to prop Mausia Taiese. Gareth Alridge converted making it 13-7.
With the match within Pakuranga’s reach, they were starved of possession and had plenty of defending to do. Giving away a penalty led to Moeke extending the Grammar lead to 16-7.
Pakuranga performed valiantly to the final whistle, and were unlucky to concede a try in the dying minutes, when Grammar flanker Dan Pryor sprung out of a ruck and dotted down underneath the goalposts.
Pivac says Pakuranga did not deliver their best performance of the season, with the Grammar Carlton forwards working hard to secure their place in this Saturday’s Gallaher Shield final.
“The boys were very disappointed after the game. That tells me we can look with confidence to next season, that the players will put in the effort to make that next step,” says Pivac.
Pakuranga can look at the 2010 season with pride, with teams improving across the grades.
“My goal firstly was to gain credibility from opponents, which we’ve done, and then to finish sixth in the Alan McEvoy Trophy competition, and we surpassed that.”
Pivac says as a coach it’s not all about results, but also about promoting players to higher honours and achieving their goals.
With just three players in Auckland rep squads last year, it looks likely that Pakuranga will have 11 players in Auckland jerseys this season across the ITM Cup, Development squad and Colts.
Young winger Charlie Piutau, in his first year out of school, was selected in the 26-man Auckland ITM Cup team named on Monday.
Pakuranga have also performed well in lower grades. The premier reserves finished top of the table and host the Tramway Cup final at Bell Park against Grammar Carlton this Saturday.
The under-21s put aside top finishing University in the semi-finals last weekend and have set up a repeat of their 2008 finals appearance, against Marist at Eden Park on Saturday. Both games kick-off at 12.30pm.
Pivac says the premiers will start working soon on their preparation for 2011 and are hoping to attract as many new players as possible.
