Maori take the title with big win over Scotland A

June 17, 2006

Edmonton, AB - The New Zealand Maori had a convincing 52-17 win over the upstart Scotland A squad, winning their second Barclays Churchill Cup title in three years.

The Maori beat Ireland and the USA to book their final berth, while Scotland had victories over England and Canada, but found the Maori attack just too much to deal with on the day.

A huge Maori tackle shook the ball loose from a Scottish ball player, with scrum-half Chris Smylie running the turnover ball to the Scottish ten metre line before off-loading to trailing No.8 Thomas Waldrom who went across the line for the opening try.

Callum Bruce converted and the Maori were up 7-0 after five minutes.

Scotland then put together an impressive stretch of rugby in the New Zealander's end - pressuring and maintaining composure with wave after wave of attack, testing the Kiwi defense.

Scotland kept the pressure up and a rolling maul in the 20th minute saw prop Alasdair Dickinson grinding across near the posts and with the Calum MacRae conversion the game was tied at 7-7.

In the 25th minute it was clear that Scotland big tackles and physical approach had the Maori reconsidering their optiosn as Bruce opted for the shot at goal from 50 metres rather than go for the corner, but it was successful giving the New Zealanders a slim 10-7 lead.

New Zealand seemed revitalised with the slight edge and drove to within five of the Scottish line a few minutes later, but staunch Scots tackling and a penalty against the Kiwis put an end to the threat.

New Zealand got its second try of the game as Joe McDonnell got an inside pass from Hosea Gear at the three metre line. Bruce slotted the conversion to give his side a 17-7 lead.

From the re-start the tackles became more fierce on both sides of the ball, and wave after wave of Scottish attack.

It was Smylie making another huge run before he flipped it back inside behind his back to Anthony Tahana, who then found a trailing Liam Messam who scored the spectacular try to give the New Zealanders a 24-7 lead with the Bruce extras.

On the stroke of half-time Macrae slotted a 40 metre penalty to reduce the Scottish deficit to 24-10 at the break.

Bruce opened the New Zealand account in the 43rd minute, putting across a 38 metre effort to increase the lead to 27-10.

Scotland began to lose its trademark discipline giving Bruce another shot at goal from 42 , which he calmly slotted to take the score to 30-10.

Thomas Waldrom scored his second of the match in the 50th minute, getting sprung free by Paul Tito to charge 15 metres for the try, increasing the lead to 37-10 with the Bruce conversion.

Waikato's Richard Kahui then scored a tremendous try following a hard charge by second row Kristian Ormsby, who off-loaded as he hit the ground, and the score was running away from the Scots at 42-10.

Ormsby then got one himself in the 69th minute taking a pass from Pehi Te Whare, bulging the Kiwi score to 47-10.

At 72 minutes Nikki Walker got some Scottish pride back as second row Mark Rennie made a tremendous charge and threw a well timed pass to put his wing home for their only try of the second half.

New Zealand were not done as Shannon Paku got the pass from wing Anthony Tahana at the Scottish goal line. Bruce could not convert and the score went over the half-century 52-17.

Scoring:
New Zealand Maori:
Try: Thomas Waldrom (2), Joe McDonnell, Liam Messim, Richard Kahui, Kristian Ormsby, Shannon Paku
Conversion: Bruce Callum (4)
Penalties Bruce Callum (3)

Scotland A:
Try: Alasdair Dickinson, Nikki Walker
Conversions: Calum MacRae (2)
Penalty: Calum MacRae

This article was posted on 18-Jun-2006, 08:00 by Hugh Barrow.