Ashley right on song at Loburn

• Published date: 12 May 2022

Kaiapoi, though, lost its unbeaten record, succumbing to Celtic in a dour affair

Ashley v Oxford

Ashley had piled on 32 unanswered points, and already claimed their bonus point before Oxford scored a converted try by arguably their hardest-worker, Liam Stevenson, just before half time. It was an impressive display by an on-song Ashley outfit which had promised to deliver a performance like this for some time.

It was more of the same in the second half – Ashley finished with nine tries to its credit and it was not until the last 10 minutes, with the game well and truly in the bag that the Ashley performance started to get a little ragged, and Oxford rallied to score two consolation tries which gave the scoreline a modicum of respectability.

All the kudos must go to Ashley. Its forward pack, with Matt Kippenberger, Louis James, Matt King and Nic Sim all turning on top-shelf performances, dominated all phases of the possession battle and at times completely annihilated Oxford at scrum time, winning a string of tight-heads.

Half-back Tyler Power no doubt appreciated getting so much quality ball, but it was his speedy and accurate delivery of that possession that really set alight a talented backline. All of Ashley’s backs had excellent games, keeping the errors to a minimum. The shining star was centre Anthony Tavendale who had a hand in many of Ashley’s tries and scored a hat-trick. He sliced the Oxford defence to shreds, seemingly at will.

With points in this match doubling for both the Luisetti Seeds Combined and the North Canterbury only competitions, the five points Ashley deservedly secured puts it in a strong position in the North Canterbury competition, but its probably left its run too late to nail down a spot in the combined quarter finals on June 4.

Ashley 56 (Anthony Tavendale (3), Louis James (2), Luke Gold, Jack Marshall, Korbyn Gray, Ben Wicksteed, tries; Marshall, one penalty, two conversions, Korbyn Gray two conversions) beat Oxford 19 (Liam Stevenson, Jireh Vunibaka, Sam Freeman tries, Matt Roberts 2 conversions).

Ohoka v Rakaia

The match at Mandeville did not reach any great heights, with both teams making a lot of mistakes. Ohoka would have been pleased to notch up its first win of the season, however. This time it didn’t surrender its half-time lead as it has done more than once this season.

Ohoka could thank its loose forward trio of Tom Taylor, Sam Powell and, in particular, Ben Gold for laying the platform for the team’s success.

Gold...