Air Chathams Whanganui Under 18’s made a barnstorming finish to their Gordon Noble-Campbell Cup campaign, beating Wellington Maori U18 29-21 in front of a raucous home crowd at Cooks Gardens on Saturday.

After the duelling hakas, Whanganui had a perfect start as second-five Johnathan Solomona combined with fullback Oliver Toohey in creating space for No8 Jahkobe Ahhoi to get to the corner flag and force the ball down through two tacklers, Toohey nailing the long range conversion.

First-five Nga Wairiki Turia made a nice chip-kick and regather to bring his team back onto the attack, with the ball transferring to the other side of the field for Solomona to get the try for 12-0.

Wellington lifted their efforts, getting into attacking position for the first time for winger Lachie Amner to dash over in the corner, with confident first-five Eden Govind slotting his first kick.

The visitors then kept the pressure on, with lock Elijah Faio charging down a 5m ruck box kick and regathering to score.

Govind’s conversion struck the post, but he then kept the ball on a string with three straight penalty kicks across both sides of halftime – the first of them a phenomenal strike from 52m out – to have Wellington in strong position at 21-12.

Whanganui responded with two outstanding tries back-to-back, the first when Toohey made a cross kick which standout centre Mason Henry caught on the run amongst defenders and outstripped the cover to score a converted try.

Then from a tap penalty, winger Angus Allpress found a gap and flicked his pass to Turia, who in turn made another flick offload to reserve prop Carlos Hay-Martin to dive across for a 24-21 turnaround.

It appeared Whanganui would be under the pump when they lost reserve forward Taylor Hay-Martin to the sin bin with less than seven minutes remaining.

Instead, lifted by vocal sideline support, they found an opening down the fringes and Henry ran a great angle before unloading in the tackle for Allpress to reach out and score at the corner flag.

Unfortunately, Whanganui’s heroics were not enough to lift the Cup as unbeaten table leaders Wairarapa Bush U18 secured a 38-19 victory over Horowhenua-Kapiti U18 in Levin.

The Rivercity Golf Whanganui U18 Girls gave their all at the Hurricanes Youth Council Development Camp, held at Napier Boys High School from Saturday to Monday.

With two unions having pulled out, Whanganui took on Manawatu U18 and a very fast and strong Wellington Centurions U18, with two 30-minute games on Saturday, followed by a training day on Sunday and 40-minute matches on Monday.

Whanganui defeated Manawatu 19-12, lost to Centurions 38-0, and then beat Manawatu again 24-0.

“We both joined together to play the Centurions, who are another league above us,” said co-coach Robbie Clark of the last game in Napier, as the Wellington girls also won against the combined Manawatu-Whanganui lineup.

“We went to the 17 players, all the girls worked really hard for each other, and they gelled together quickly as a team.

“We were very proud of them.”

By Jared Smith