New Haven Warriors Move Into Second Position

2009-07-27

The New Haven Warriors have moved into outright second position on the AMNRL table after a crushing defeat of the Boston 13’s in Boston.

With the opportunity to move up the table, the Warriors recorded a convincing 54-28 win over their opposition. The Warriors got out to a quick fire start posting the first try from a Roy Leoni bomb that was claimed by second rower Keith Nelson who offloaded to Ewan Robinson in the 4th minute.

But the failure to complete sets and the sin-binning of Ihaka Waerea for a professional foul seen the Warriors trailing 12-16 with 2 minutes remaining in the first half. A Boston error inside their own 20 meter zone forced a scrum which resulted in Leoni throwing a cut out pass to winger Brian Lee who scored in the corner to level the scores at half time 16-16.

The second was to be a different story. Another sin binning, this time to captain Siose Muliumu (for an unknown reason) fired up the Warriors outfit as they dished out some punishing defense and scored three tries to Waerea, Robinson and Keiki Misipeka.

As the game reached the final quarter, the Warriors looked to outclass their opposition and showed some fine touches. The charge was lead by man of the match Anthony Sunia, who constantly busted the line and included a 75 meter run that lead to a try from hooker Brian Schacht. The final score; New Haven Warriors 54 to Boston 28.

Players along with Sunia to stand out were, second rower Keith Nelson who was a rock in the defense line, and Muliumu who was almost unstoppable close to the line.

Player Coach Roy Leoni was extremely happy after the game, and said his players showed a lot of guts to win with injuries to key players and playing 60 minutes of the game with only 12 players (after the sin binning offences).

The Warriors will this week head to New Jersey for the annual War Of The Shore event were they will face the Aston Bulls in a 2008 grand final rematch.

New Haven Warriors 54 – Siose Muliumu 3, Derrick Roma 2, Ewan Robinson 2, Brian Lee, Ihaka Waerea, Keiki Misipeka, Brian Schacht tries; Roy Leoni 2, Roma conversions.

Boston 13’s – 28

A link to photos can be found here.

Photos courtesy of Patty Muench.