It had all the hallmarks of a grand final, a young Marist side looking to turn the table on Diesel Services following a loss to them earlier in the year and the latter looking to teach them another sour lesson in losing. The result was eighty minutes of hard rugby.
The Solbrew backed Marist Rugby Club, looking to turn the tables after a resounding loss to Diesel Services in a friendly earlier in the year, proved a harder side to walk over this time round. Though only a penalty kick kept them on the scoreboard in the first half, great work by the forwards meant Diesel had their work cut out for them only managing to secure one unconverted try and a penalty in that first forty minutes.Impressive defence by the young Marist side in the second half - that included a held up try - at their try line, thwarted Diesel's repeated attempts to touch down a game winner. However as the game dragged into the evening with pouring rain making visibility poor, Diesel continued their drive finally scraping through the Marist defence with a well placed kick and a blistering run by their winger.
Spectators who braved the bad weather to watch, described the match as the best rugby they had seen this season. Mistakes were minimal, both teams contested strongly at the scrums, line outs and rucks.
"There was a lot of energy and tension and some massive tackles and collisions but no time was wasted off the ball," one spectator said "both teams showed great commitment."
Peza Wickham long time Marist captain congratulated the Diesel on their hard earned win.
"They deserved their win, they were courageous and played hard until the final whistle and eventually came out on top, but it was a great game overall," he said.
"Marist has a new rival now, which is great for us, we need the drive for games but this match was definitely Diesel's lesson to us and we look forward to future matches against them," Wickham said.
Wickham also congratulated his boys following their performance during the match.
"We may have lost the match but in terms of our development as a club this match is one of our big wins, the boys played brilliantly, this is one of our benchmark games and we're hungry to improve on it."
"Eighty percent of our players are between the ages of 17 and 22 years, most of them had never touched a rugby ball or even watched the league when they first started with us, they have progressed so much since the start of the year its hard to imagine the struggle in the first few months," Wickham said
Meanwhile off the field the Marist Rugby Club with the backing of their main sponsor Solbrew are gearing up to carry out their own social and fundraising activities as the Honiara Rugby League draws to a close.
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