De La Salle win well

We go to New Zealand this week for a match report on a match involving Sir John Kirwan's old school, De La Salle College of Auckland, a match which his old school won more comfortably than expected.

Two strong south Auckland schools lined up on Saturday night for the most recent KFC Curtain Raisers. De La Salle College and Otahuhu College took to the main field at Eden Park, both sides expecting a tough fight. But it was De La Salle who romped ahead, coming out on top 37-11.

De La Salle earned six tries collectively during the 70 minutes, compared with Otahuhu’s one. Otahuhu College’s coach Leua Tamati said his team had adopted a new game plan and “weren’t able to sustain it” for the full 70 minutes.

“We were able to sustain enough pressure in the first half, but because we’re new to it we just didn’t have enough practice,” said Leua. “De La Salle played really well and they were a big team.”

For his part, De La Salle coach Andrew Va’a said that, although he was happy with the score, the team still “threw away 20 points.”

“Our fitness saw us through in the end, we were able to get on top of them and maintain pressure throughout the whole game,” Andrew said. “And when we finally cracked them, we were able to score some points.”

The De La Salle team captain, Ben Sa’u, a member of the Blues Under-17 squad, said his team came out onto Eden Park with high intensity after a loss to Dilworth the week before. The anticipation of playing under the Eden Park lights also helped.

“Throughout this week, there was a lot of excitement about playing in one of the best stadiums in the world,” he said. “But we couldn’t let that get to our heads, we had to use that excitement as adrenaline for when we hit the field. And that really helped us today.”

Also helping were the throngs of De La Salle supporters, more than 400 of them, who cheered their First XV through every kick, carry and try.

The match was televised.