Vipers win one, lose two

Will Johnston

 The Mid-Central Vipers missed out on the New Zealand Rugby League championship final after an improvised competition in Auckland last week.  

Made up of players from the Taranaki, Manawatu and Hawke’s Bay regions, Vipers played in a three-round North Island competition at Pulman Park. The winner will play in a national final against the winner of the South Island pool this Saturday at Trusts Arena in Auckland.

The competition was formed after the regular season was shortened. 

On Saturday the Vipers lost two of the three games, first to Upper Central Stallions 30-10.

The side then found form against Wellington Orcas on Sunday and claimed a 30-24 win.

Six points separated the two teams at the break and Vipers took an 18-point lead after the break. But Orcas proved difficult to put away as a late surge saw Wellington bring the deficit back to six points before it ran out of time.

Josh Fifita, Josh Kerr, Shae Gray, Sebastian Lomax-Jackson and Sione Sifa scored Vipers’ tries.

In the third match a second-half comeback wasn’t enough for Vipers as it lost 16-26 to Northland Swords on Sunday.

The Swords got out to a healthy lead at the break, but Vipers came back to lock the score up at 16-all.

Swords then ran away with the game scoring two back-to-back tries with five minutes to play to put the score out of doubt.  Nusipepa Moefili, Kerr and Fifita scored the tries for Vipers.

The Swords made it through to the play off with the South Island winner, despite losing its second game to Stallions 22-20.

Meanwhile, the Vipers women’s team picked up one win in its competition.

It first lost to Akarana Falcons 8-48, then beat Canterbury 26-18 and lost to Counties Manukau Stingrays 14-62 in the final match. 

Falcons thrashed Canterbury 62-6 in the women’s premiership final.

Photo: Mid Central League Facebook page