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.

Team list: Meke Unasa, Mafola Timaloa, Debarres Neemia, Marcus Auvaa, Edwin Pita, Steve Watkinson, Josh Siaosi, Hector Purcell, Jason Mudgway, Toleafoa Leaupepe, Ben Seve, Siliga Kepaoa, Karl Simeti. Tama Guthrie, Joe Alesi, Hans Leauanae, Harry Vete.

Richmond started with a hiss and roar with two early tries to winger Mafola Timaloa. The forwards were strong with juggernauts Toleafoa Leaupepe and Hector Purcell smashing up the mid field with strong prop carries.. Tireless captain Karl Simeti was courageous with his early hit ups and tackles. The left edge was kept busy with Marcus Auvaa and Ben Seve containing the attacking Otara backs. The halves combinations formed well to get early ball out to the backs spreading the Scorpions mid field. In one instance Hector Purcell made a mid field line break and gifted his partner in crime Toleafoa a try in front of the post.

Co-Captain Joey Alesi showed great resolve to help his forward pack playing from the front row. In the end Otara were outplayed by a more passionate and determined Richmond team. No doubt Otara will come back firing but first they take on Papatoetoe in next weekends elimination semi final. Player of the day - Mafola Timaloa with two tries. His post try celebrations would have all members proud. 


Richmond Premiers thank all our Richmond supporters that came out to support them out at Ngati Otara Park. Well done to our Richmond Premiers and much thanks to the coaching staff and Richmond families. There is one more game to go. We want all Richmond supporters at the Sharman Cup Grand finals on August 17th at the Trust Stadium.

Half time score: Otara 16, Richmond 14. 
A nail biting 15 mins to go with Otara 20, Richmond Premiers 28. 
8 mins to go Otara 22, Richmond Premiers 30.
34 - 22 Richmond over Otara
Full time score to Richmond Premiers top class today took it to Otara final score 34 -22 an awesome win. 
We are off to the 2013 Sharman Cup Grand Final. 

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

Premier 1st vs Ellerslie Eagles
Number 6 scores Ellerslies first try. No conversion. 4 - 0
Number 2 (Lee Robson) scores for Richmond.
Successful conversion. 6 - 4 to Richmond.
Richmond fullback (Savi Hafoka) dots it down under the post for an easy conversion. 12 - 4 Richmond
Soft try for Richmond (Josh Mana). Conversion made. 18 - 4.
Another converted try (Uala Toamaka) for Richmond. 24 - 4.
Richmond score (Steve Watkinson). Unsuccessful conversion. 28 - 4.
Richmond (Savi Hafoka) in again. Conversion is successful. 34 - 4.
Richmond 7 (Josh Mana) hops around the defence for a try. Missed conversion. 38 - 4.
And Ellerslie 8 powers over. Conversion successful. 38 - 10.
Richmond 1 (Savi Hafoka) scores again. Conversion made. 44 - 10.
Richmond (Josh Tui) score again. Conversion missed. 48 - 10.
52 - 10 Richmond (Siti Tautiaga) scores just before full time. Well played Richmond. 

Game report
Premiers 1st kicked off the 2013 season against the Elleslie Eagles at Elleslie domain. With the first hit up comes a new team and hopefully a new attitude. We picked a mix team of experienced and youthful players. A special mention to Lee Robinson & Zac Tui in playing there first Senior grade games at the age of 18 years old. With very experienced halves pairding of Josh Mana at half back and Josh Siaosi at stand off they combined to lead the team around the field very well.  Props Josh Tui, Uala Toamaka & Kennedy Niovra dominating the opposition forwards with strong defence and attack the edge runners had plenty of space to run rampant. The boys went in to the break at half time with a 24-6 lead.

In the Second half the team started the early sets well and came to dominate once again with Savi Hafoka & Siti Tautiaga scoring tries at will with the ever reliable Steve Watkinson converting. Down to only two bench players for the remaining 30 minutes the team stuck strong. Coach Henry Solomona Was very happy with the fitness, work ethic and mobility of forwards Uala,Josh Tui, Lafi Faamausili, Steve Atutolu and Bronson Harden. Tana Fili and Lee from the wing carried the ball well and had outstanding games from the dummy half. The Premier 1st team came away with a solid win 62-10. Next week the team play Papatoetoe Panthers at Grey Lynn park. We would love to see you all down there in your Richmond gears supporting us! 

BITEM, BITEM, BULLDOGS

The Richmond Premiers played Glenfield greyhounds at Sunnynook park, Glenfield. After losing to Elleslie Eagles the week before we had to step up if we were to take something out of this 2012 season. Going into this game we knew we had to start well as Glenfield were above us on 10 points and Richmond sitting on 6. The Richmond boys started well in the first half going up 16-6 before the rain began to pour.
With our halves Josh Mana and Tama Guthrie directing the team around the park we were making big advances up the field. With depth and pin point kicking from our halves we managed to pin Glenfield in there own half. Our defence worked well and forced mistakes from the home team. With this we scored mutlple tries to full back Savi Hafoka, half back Josh Mana, prop forward Junior Uale (pictured) and finished the game on a 32-16 winning high. This was a big effort from all the boys. Stand out players included: James Finlayson, Ioane Godinet, Mia Tautiga and the forward pack. Player of the days were Joseph Alesi (Backs) & Junior Uale (Forwards).

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.

Congratulations to Aaron Nootai and Tama Guthrie on there selection for the NZ touch representative team. The Premier grade boys will be sorely missed however they will need all the encouragement and support as they take on Australia on 26th April 2012 in three matches. Both players are unavailable to play in the next few games for precautionery reasons.

For more info click here.
To check out Aaron Nootai's (left) player profile click here.
To check out Tama Guthrie's (right) player profile click here.

Richmond Premiers Vs Ellerslie, Saturday 31st March.
By Henri Nicholas

 We didn't get off to the greatest of starts finding our selves down 12-nill after 15mins. We struggled to complete sets, and our ball carry was poor coming out of our red zone, this allowed Ellerslie to dominate field position and the game in the opening quarter. We came into a bit of luck with Richmond 5/8 Tama Guthrie collecting an intercept pass and running 80 meters to open our account for 2012. This would be the turning point of the first half with our boys running in another 4 tries and take the lead 28-12 in to the half time break. 

After the oranges -the boys started the second half the way they ended the first to lead 42-12 at the 60 minute mark. Of concern was the way we finished the game, the concentration levels and commitment dropped off with our boys allowing Ellerslie Eagles to run in three soft tries -final score 54-30 to Richmond. For our first up game we are happy with the win but acknowledge the fact that we are far away from where we need to be if we intend on being competitive this year!

 Our two Player Of The Days went to Toleafoa Leaupepe (Prop forward) for his committed defence and his powerful ball carries. Bronson Harden (Lock) for topping the tackle count, second in ball carries and also managed to play the full 80mins. Also strong games by Cale Baker (Hooker), Savi Hafoka (Full back), Juniour Uale (Prop forward). Congratulations boys. Next game is at home this Saturday against Glenfield and we would love to have your support.


Try scorers: Tama Guthrie (2), Josh Mana (2), Ioane Godinet, Fa'avae Neli, Aaron Nootai, Cale Baker, Toleafoa Leaupepe, Junior Uale, Savi Hafoka.
Conversions: Godinet (7)


PLAYER THE DAY
3 points: Tolefafoa Leaupepe
2 points: Bronson Harden
1 point: Cale Baker