| Wellington win stunner of a Quarter Final on strokes by Vaughan Hilton 11 July 2003 |
NZ U18 National Tournament
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| Wellington played sensationally well in the first half to lead 2-0 at the break. Canterbury had brief forays into the Wellington half only to be thwarted by Tim Giles, Sunil Hira, Jason Hilton and David Twigg. When the halves and Tim failed to prevent Canterbury access to the Wellington half, Chris Thomas and Shaun Cosgriff tidied up admirably. |
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In the 2nd half Canterbury meant business and brief forays down theleft flank via Rueben Koorey that it looked liked Canterbury had aachance. A third Wellington goal from a well taken drag flicked PC by Thomas sent the largely Wellington support into a frenzy. To show their real class and mental fortitude Canterbury clawed their way back into the game through successive PC conversions. A lateequaliser saw the two teams face the unfortunate and dreaded penalty shootout.
After Canterbury missed the first attempt Wgtn made no mistakes with 5 successful penalty strokes to win 8-7 in a game worthy of a final. Not to be outdone Waikato and Otago stepped up to play the 2nd Qtr final in rapidly deteriotaing conditions. Waikato (like Wgtn) dominated the early salvo's and took an early two goal lead. Otago struck back with two goals in 3 minutes to equalise and Waikato rapidly responded with a third. After half time the honours were shared with the persistant rain and then the goal of the tournament. Sideline to sideline passes in quick succession saw Waikato create afurther opportunity which they converted to the delite of a largely partisan Mooloo crowd. Coach Rosemergy (already hoarse from the day before) rotated the bench in an effort to once again ignite the Waikato side. Again, like the quarter before it, the trailing team, scored an all important equaliser and for the 2nd successive quarter final the game was decided on strokes. Unfortunately Waikato went wide with its first 2 strokes with itstournament stabdouts Tim and Richards both missing. Otago clinched an upset 7-6 victory to now play the winner of Nth Harbour and Nelson. All spectators got in the two quarter finals, a standard that, if breached, will leave them speechless (like Waikato Coach, Bruce Rosemergy). |
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