Game four of the AURFC pre-season saw the Premier team make the short trip across to Cornwall Park, the temporary home of arch-rivals Grammar TEC. Blessed with another beautiful sunny Auckland day, high-tempo running rugby was on the cards for both teams renowned for throwing the seed around.

With the game being played over two halves of 30 minutes, the spectacle promised to be an intense hit out and it did not disappoint. Varsity came out firing, dominating territory and possession against a bigger GTEC opposition boasting some of the region's top up-and-coming talent including lock Liam Hallam-Eames, and Blues debutants Josh Fusitua and Jock McKenzie.

Despite Varsity making all the play (albeit frantic at times), the well-organised GTEC defensive line was not budging. Ironically, it was a try against the run of play that kicked the scoring off for Varsity. Winger-cum-fullback Liam Brady ran a quick lineout with fullback Sam Aitken 10m from the GTEC line to catch them napping for the first five-pointer of the day. 5-nil to Varsity.

GTEC managed to capitalise on their first trip deep into Varsity territory with a nicely taken team try, sweeping from one side of the field to the other to put their #11 away into the right corner. First-five McKenzie slotted the kick from the sideline to make the score 5-7 to GTEC.

The rest of the half however was all Varsity, thanks to some brilliant back play that resulted in Noah Foster crossing the line twice. The first try was a cracker, with the midfielder Alfred Nonu breaking the line before offloading to his midfield partner George Emosi who was pulled down close to the line, the ball was quickly recycled and quick hands from Tyrone Elkington to Noah Foster saw the winger walk over for the first of his two tries. The second try was from a full line-out which saw a brilliant cut-out pass from Nonu to Brady who drew in the final defender to gift Foster another meat pie. Elkington converted one out of two of Foster's tries from wide-out to make it 17-7 Varsity at half-time.

GTEC came out swinging to start the second half, and they did not stop, shifting the momentum and capitalising on a tiring Varsity team to run in 3 unanswered tries. The first from impressive flanker/No.8 Sam Hainsworth who split the heart of the Varsity ruck D to barge his way over with a fine solo effort. The second came from a well-executed lineout drive close to the line. The final try came from another sweeping play catching the Varsity defensive line short out wide.

FINAL SCORE – Grammar TEC 28 - 17 Varsity

It really was a game of two halves, with both sides showing how dangerous they can be when given territory and possession. Standouts for the Varsity team were No.8 Kalin Felise, whose dynamic ball carrying is proving to be an asset for the students. Veteran Lock/flanker Jonny Neary got through a mountain of work and chimed in with a classic Neary break down the sideline. Midfielder Alfred Nonu proved hard to put down and had some nice touches on attack. Hooker Steve Afoa played the full game and provided good go-forward. Special mention to winger Noah Foster who crossed for a brace, making it 8 tries from 4 games in pre-season, definitely a player to watch this season.

Varsity has the Easter weekend off as they look to recharge the batteries after a long, but valuable pre-season to date. The next fixture will be Saturday 23rd April against TBC for Waka Nathan Round 2 before the big opening round matchup vs defending champions Eden away on Saturday 30th April.

Written by: Tyrone Elkington

Article added: Wednesday 13 April 2022