Metro teach Massey students the lesson on cold afternoon

By Jared Smith

St Johns Whanganui Metro continue to enjoy their MRU Colts road trips after a lightning quick start saw them through to a 51-7 win over Massey University RFC at the school grounds on Saturday.

Locking in a home semifinal with two games left, as they cannot finish lower than second place, Metro were up 36-0 over the students by halftime.

“They come out real firing, right from the get go, which was one of our work-on’s,” said coach Mark Cosford.

“We’re notoriously been slow starters. We attacked the line straight away, it was awesome to see.”

Building a season try-scoring record which rivals that of Vereniki Tikoisolomone in Tasman Tanning Premier, the 2019 Heartland Hurricanes player Jack O’Leary got another double.

Winger Cody Davy also scored two tries for the second week in a row, while the other five-pointers were shared around.

One advantage of the quick start was Metro were fresh and warm, but by the second half, which was kept to a 15-7 scoreline, the well-oiled machine had seized up in the extreme cold, with dropped ball aplenty in the wet.

“The weather was absolutely disgusting, like it was everywhere else, but probably a few degrees colder,” said Cosford.

As well as the regular standouts, the coach was pleased with the improvements from the likes of lock Joe Oakman and winger Justin Ferguson.

“They’re starting to step up, some of the younger boys in the team.”

Having scored a phenomenal 422 points to only 75 conceded in nine played games (plus one default win), Metro stay on the road this coming weekend when they take on third-placed Old Boys Marist (4-1-4) at Ongley Park.

Old Boys are coming off a 12-8 loss to Dannevirke Sports Club, who picked up their first win on the season, which when combined with a previous draw and host of bonus points actually keeps them in with a mathematical chance of the semifinals.

The only teams with winning records and a positive points differential are Metro and defending champions the Feilding Yellows, who won their derby with Feilding Old Boys-Oroua 53-21 on Saturday.

But Cosford’s primary concern for their last two games, with a bye in the middle, is to iron out the squad’s work-on’s, thereby lowering the risk of being caught off-guard in the playoffs.

 “They all sort of know. Hopefully our game-plan will be right all the way through.”