End of a good season for the Hawks

By Frank Neill

The Johnsonville Hawks very good 2023 Rugby season is over.

The Hawks were beaten in the semi-final of their Jubilee Cup match by Oriental Rongotai 39-26 on 15 July.

Had they won the match, it would have seen Johnsonville in its first Jubilee Cup final for 25 years.

Oriental Rongotai had to come from behind to win the match, played at Helston Park, however.

With the wind at their back, Johnsonville led 23-5 at half time.

Mark Sutton opened the scoring with a penalty, and added two more to take the Hawkes to a 9-0 lead.

First five eight Niall Delahunt and lock Anthony Pettett then scored tries, both following incisive runs from within the Hawks half. Mark converted both tries. Mark would add a penalty in the second half to complete Johnsonville’s scoring.

Four players shone for the Hawks in the match – Mark Sutton, Anthony Pettett and the two flankers, Tyler Hall and Josh Betham.

Johnsonville also came up short in their H D Morgan division 2 semi-final. In a tightly fought encounter Oriental Rongotai prevailed 22-17.

Ories looked to have the match sewn up when they led 12-3 with just 10 minutes to play in what had been, until then, a low scoring encounter. However a late flurry of tries saw 24 points scored in the final 10 minutes. Although the Hawks scored 14 of these, it was not quite enough to take them into the lead.