The LJ Hooker Richmond Premiers take on the Otahuhu Leopards at Bert Henham Park on Saturday 28th June. This game promises to be full of impact, hard hits and strong hit ups from both teams. The Richmond Premiers will need all the support they can get as they are expecting a great battle upfront. With all Bulldogs supporters in attendance the team can finish Round 1 with a hopeful win! Premier 1st kick off at 12.45pm. Premier team kick off 2.30pm.

Full player profiles click here: http://tiny.cc/ttgiex

Shout out to our loyal sponsors: LJ Hooker Ponsonby, Waterview Laundromat, Waterview Superette & Lotto, Giltrap Group, Peter Fell Concrete & Shamrock Reroofing.

Match Report
The Richmond Premiers finally have got the monkey off its back and have secured its first win of the 2014 Fox Memorial Shield Competition. Solid performance from each team member who are finally playing to the teams potential. Strong performance noticeably from winger David Dyer, opening try scorer Andrew Kake and the front rowers who laid the platform for the team.

It was clear that new head coach Bernie Perenara, now in to week three of the Premier team role has addressed the backs out-wide defence. The huge improvement proved a vastly different side with no tries being scored out wide.

The forward pack was on top form dominating from the get go. Lead strongly by Hector Purcell, Stewart Preuss, Jonah Sofele and Logan Wright up front the enormous effort to gain metres at will with a quick succession substitution system helped keep the momentum in the home teams favor.

The skillful second rowers caused a lot of headaches for the visiting Hawks as Siliga Kepaoa, Ben Seve and opening game try scorer Andrew Kake were causing havoc on the fringes. Off load options and support in numbers allowed for half break opportunities. Defensively the back row were kept busy as they contained Mangere’s big boys and outside backs. The hunger for defence is back!

The space created allowed for the outside backs to finish off tries. Something proven difficult in round one. Apart from the one handling error in the first half from winger David Dyer who went on to make amends by scoring a hatrick in the second half, the team were solid.

The Premier team would like to acknowledge the strong start to the very loud and vocal Richmond crowd. Hooker John Mana said “I felt it (the Richmond crowd) helped me out when I was tiring towards the back end of the first half and early second half. The crowd played a big part in our win.” It was a good team effort from the whole team and management especially with everyone doing their roles and more when it was needed. "The boys kept digging in and stuck in the grind together and when things were going tough we just played as a team", says John Mana.

BULLDOGS GRAB THE CUP

A hard-fought rugby league grand final win for the Richmond Bulldogs sees them crowned 2013 SAS Sharman Cup champions and promoted to next year's Fox Memorial Shield.

The Bulldogs capped off their centennial year with an 18-14 win over the Otara Scorpions after a cliffhanger finish in front of a 1500-strong crowd at Henderson's Trusts Stadium on Saturday.

Both teams fully deserved their place in the final after a long and hard season.

The Bulldogs came into the final after a strong performance in the semifinals against the Scorpions, trouncing them 34-22.

The first try of the day came in the fifth minute courtesy of Bruce Tusa who put through Tagisia Fulutusi for the Scorpions.

Toleafoa Leaupepe went agonisingly close but the desperate Scorpions defence held out - until a rampaging Hector Purcell bulldozed over to give Richmond their first points.

Steve Watkinson converted and Richmond were up 6-4. Richmond seemed to get a second wind and with only 10 to go in the first half went over again down the left flank after quick hands had Marcus Auva'a ground the ball under pressure.

Another Watkinson conversion had Bulldogs up 12-4 at halftime.

In the second half the Bulldog's Bronson Harden was held up in goal to be denied a try.

This gave Otara their first opportunity of the half and James Tulikaki crossed to give the Scorpions their second try, making the score 12-8 after a missed conversion.

Richmond did not have to wait long for their next chance and when the Bulldogs kicked early and caught Scorpions' winger Tagisia Fulutusi out of position, the Bulldogs found themselves hard on attack. From there an early tap by Watkinson had him find his opposites napping and he managed to plant the ball to extend the lead to 18-8 after converting the try.

With three minutes remaining Scorpions' five-eight Leiloa Lafaele crossed and with a successful conversion it was 18-14 to the Bulldogs with a minute to go.

From the kickoff Otara missed the ball and it went out for a line dropout.

The Scorpions gained possession and broke away downfield but an Otara grubber failed to find its man and the ball was cleared for the Bulldogs to win 18-14.

SAS Sharman Cup Grand Final Results:

Richmond Bulldogs 18 (12) V (4) 14 Otara Scorpions.

Richmond Premiers played Te Atatu Roosters at Grey Lynn park. Half time score 16-6. Full time score 24-14 to Richmond. This win takes the team into second position after 5 rounds with 4 wins, 1 draw. Next week the boys play East Coast Bays Barracuddas who are currently sitting at the top of the Sharman Cup ladder board. Let's get on board & support the boys in our centenary year. #biteembulldogs

The Richmond Premiers are the talk of the competition after their excellent start to the season.

A human tunnel was formed to welcome the Richmond Premiers onto the field for the first home game of the 2013 season. A capacity crowd and the radiant sun proved to be positive indicators for the game ahead against 2012 Sharman Cup finalists, Papatoetoe Panthers.

No truer words were said than ‘Defence wins games’.

While the Rovers defensive line remained solid, the first signs of a weakening Panthers defence came nearly 20 minutes in the game with ex Vulcans player Aaron Nootai scoring on the left wing, opening what was to be a wave of tries.

The poor handling skills of the Panthers were far from their winning 2012 form, with a myriad of errors allowing the Rovers to race away to a 26-0 lead at half time through tries to Toafofoa Sipley, Junior Uale, Savi Hafoka and Aaron Nootai again.

The Rovers continued the second half with the same intensity and momentum with Siliga Kepaoa surging ahead a clear 30 metres to score between the posts converted successfully by Harry Vete. Five minutes had not lapsed before Captain Karl Simeti busted through the flailing Panthers defence to score, and Toafofoa adding a further 4 points to the board shortly after.

Guarding the line after three consecutive defensive plays, the impenetrable Richmond wall came down 65 minutes into the game after the Panthers hit back.

Harry Vete donned his golden boots to successfully slot a total of 8 conversions. Final score: 56-8 Richmond Premiers.

Richmond’s captain Karl Simeti was inspirational for the home team forcing several turnovers with his confrontational defence. Another stand-out for the match was Junior Warriors player Toafofoa Sipley who led the hitup count in attack with 13 hit ups earning him the player of the day award.

Coach Ming Mafoe was pleased with the result though is determined to see a reduction in the error rate.

Next game : Sat 13 April 2:30pm, Moyle Park. vs Manukau Magpies

GAME REPORT
Premiers game kicks off at 2.30
Richmond Premiers number 8 (Hector Purcell) opens the scoring. 6 - 0
Eagles hit straight back off the kick off with a bust up the middle from number 7. 12 - 6
Richmond (Jason Mudgway) reply with a try out of dummy half, no conversion. 12 - 10
Another try for Richmond (Tama Guthrie), conversion missed. 12 - 14
With one in the bin for Ellerlsie, Richmond (Karl Simiti) grab a try just before half time. 12 - 26
Richmond (Karl Simiti) in again right next to the post. 12 - 20 to Richmond.
Richmond (Edwin Pita) first to score in the second half. 12 - 32
Ellerslie hit back with a long range effort. 18 - 42
Richmond (Edwin Pita) reply with a try in the left corner. 18 - 46
Ellerslie touch down in the opposite corner. 24 - 46
Richmond (Harry Vete) in again. 24 - 50
Full time Ellerslie Premiers def. by Richmond Premiers 24 - 50

It was the third game (Game 12) in the second round of the Sharman Cup and the mighty Richmond Rovers travelled to Nagti Otara to play the second placed Otara Scorpions. In Round 3 we lost to Otara at home so we needed to front up in the forwards and dominate the ruck area as well as defend well outwide to have any chance of beating a well drilled side.

The go forward from the forwards was of high quality enabling the best opportunities from our half back and stand off combination of Josh Mana & Tama Gurthrie to continue their fine form from last weeks game against Glenfield greyhounds. The first half started slow with Otara scoring first , we then follow suit with a try to Faavae Toloua in the corner and Josh Mana slotting the conversion from the sideline to give us the lead 6-4 with only 15 minutes gone. Otara scored again out wide and then we scored two more tries to take us to the half time with a 16-8 lead. We had the wind in the first half so we were now playing against the wind and running up hill. Otara started strong scoring two tries in the first 15 minutes of the season half. We then scored two unconverted tries through some good finishing tries by Cale Baker & Josh Siaosi both scoring in the corner. With 20 minutes left in the game Richmond were leading 24-16. Otara found there second wind and went on a scoring spree scoring four tries with great momentum taking the lead 32-24. With our reserves bench down to only two players and with 10 minutes remaining Richmond managed to get a roll on with a couple of penalties. Momentum started to change thanks to a bustling run and unconverted try from prop forward Hector Purcell taking the to score 32-28. With five minutes remaining Richmond managed to force repeat sets and penalties to go our way and was back in Otara's half with merely minutes left in the game. With one set of six left Richmond had to use this well. On the back of four tackles Josh mana received the ball on the final tackle and kicked diagonally behind Otara's defence and this was regathered by a wide running Aaron Nootai (pictured) who scored under the posts this made it 32-32 and with time up the last act of the day went to Tama Guthrie who converted the try to allow one of the years upsets and the Richmond Premiers to come away winning 34-32.
P​LAYERS OF THE DAY: Mia Tautiga & Bronson Harden.
Next week we play Mangere East Hawks at Grey Lynn Park. We would love your support as we look to continue our winning streak to push us in to the top four. ALL DAY DOGGIES!!!

The Richmond Premiers played their last round game at New Lynn Stags home ground, Lawson Park. The Richmond Premiers this week have a few injuries to Savi Hafoka, Lafi Faamausili, Steve Watkinson and Pati Taula so called up from Premier 1st was Andrew Kake, Santos Taurua and James Finlayson who all are confidently capable of filling in the holes. In the opening first 10 minutes Richmond started slowly missing a number of crucial tackles and allowing a lead of 12-6 to New Lynn. Our line speed was far too slow, our marker defence did not defend as well as it should and it showed with the half time score being 18-14 to New Lynn.

The second half started with both team’s not trading tries but making mistakes and incomplete sets of six. New Lynn started off better scoring an unconverted try to extend their lead 22-14. We had to be the next to score to get back in the game. This came in the form of a picture perfect pass from Tama Guthrie finding Nale Bourke who went in to score a converted try to take the score to 22-20 to New Lynn. We scored two quick converted tries to Junior Uale and Hector Purcell (picture left) to take the lead 32-22 to the Doggies. With 10 minutes left in the game we made several mistakes and surrendered field position. This allowed New Lynn back in to the game in which they scored a converted try to take the game to 32-28 to Richmond. We had a set of six and with two minutes to go we gave up the ball on the 4th tackle to hand over possession and position. New Lynn attacked the blind side and found a hole to score in the corner. With full time up it was a 32-32 draw. Thank you to the Richmond supporters who came to support their team.