Ashley take Deans Shield home

• Published date: 30 June 2022
• Publication title: North Canterbury News

Meanwhile, at Cheviot, Glenmark-Cheviot was also brought down to earth after its victory in the Combined Grand Final last weekend, when Kaiapoi held out the fast finishing northerners for a narrow 27-24 victory

The top four teams have opened up a gap on the rest of the teams in the Luisetti Seeds competition.

Kaiapoi (19) leads with Ashley, Glenmark-Cheviot and Saracens are both on 15, well clear of the next teams — Hurunui and Ohoka on 7.

Next Saturday most interest will be at Cheviot where Glenmark-Cheviot, undoubtedly smarting from this week’s defeat, will be seeking redemption against Ashley.

It will be a surprise if the chance to win back their beloved Deans Shield doesn’t bring the best out of the Glenmark-Cheviot side.

Ohoka v Ashley

Ohoka settled into the game more quickly and was rewarded for its early territorial dominance with a penalty kicked by Scott Allin after just 7 minutes.

When Ohoka’s hard-working number 8, Tom Taylor received a yellow card after an altercation, his teammates lifted their endeavours.

The opportunistic Ohoka centre, Blain O’Loughlin, snaffled up a loose ball and ran half the length of the field to score.

Ashley started to assert its authority. Winger Korbyn Gray was busy, looking for work.

Whenever he got the ball in hand, which was quite often, he could be relied on to break at least one tackle, often more.

The industrious lock, Jimmy Thiele was the first to score for Ashley. Then a Jack Marshall penalty levelled the scores.

Ashley was starting to get the better of the territorial battle, but Ohoka’s Allin, playing at first-five, showed there was much more to his kicking game than just his goal-kicking. He hoisted some prodigious punts which had the crowd gasping and frequently relieved the pressure that was starting to mount on the holders.

Then right on the cusp of half-time came a play that really lifted Ohoka’s spirits. Angus Gunn gathered an Ashley kick well inside Ohoka’s territory put in a long 50-22 kick which gave Ohoka the throw to an attacking lineout.

Unusually, the Ashley defence went missing. Flanker Ben Gold claimed the ball at the rear of the lineout and crashed over in a one-on-one tackle. Allin’s conversion gave Ohoka a useful 15-8 lead at the break.

But it didn’t take Ashley long to gain the ascendancy in the third quarter. The whole Ashley pack was rolling up its sleeves, led by the Duckworth brothers at prop and No. 8 Elijah Coulston.

During this period they put on three unanswered tries, all...