St Peter's College are the champions of Auckland schoolboy rugby after a thrilling 29-28 win over King's College in the 1A final at Eden Park on Saturday.
It was a see-saw encounter that went right down to the wire, the sides exchanging tries throughout the second half with St Peter's managing to repel a late King's assault to secure victory.
St Peter's got off to a dream start when halfback Sam Wye charged down a clearance from the opening kick-off to put his side ahead 7-0 in the first minute.
Eleven minutes later, flanker Semisi Tapa pounced across the line from close range to put St Peters out to a 12 point advantage.
That soon became 14 points after powerful centre Apetone Vaka bulldozered his way over for St Peters' third try and a 17-3 lead.
King's eventually opened their try-scoring account courtesy of wing Temple Kalepo, with an ensuing penalty closing the scoreboard deficit to just four points at halftime.
Five minutes into the second stanza, King's first-five Zarn Sullivan ghosted through a gap and outpaced the cover defence to give his side its first lead of the game, only for St Peter's to strike moments later through P.J Tonga and edge ahead 22-21.
Lock Malipolo Manukia finished off an impressive period of phase play from St. Peter's to increase that lead to 29-21 with 20 minutes to play.
Minutes later, hulking centre Lukas Halls charged down the right edge after receiving a deft offload from his winger to bring the gap back to a single point.
With less than a minute remaining, Halls had a fantastic opportunity to steal his side a win but was unable to scoop the ball from the deck after his own chip ahead, fumbling with the open tryline just a metre ahead.
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