Tupou College Toloa pulled off a stunning 34 – 32 victory over Tonga College ‘Atele on Tuesday 12 June, to win the Under-18 Tongatapu Secondary Schools Rugby Finals at the Tupou College rugby grounds at Toloa.

The sides regularly exchanged comfortable leads throughout the game, which ended after Tupou College scored a thrilling game winning try in overtime.

Early lead

Tonga College converted a penalty soon after the opening kick-off to lead 3 – 0. Tonga College responded with two tries in quick succession to put themselves comfortably ahead 12 – 3. Tonga College rallied back with two converted tries of their own and a penalty to lead 20 – 12 at halftime.

Early in the second-half, Tupou College scored two early tries to regain the lead 24 – 20.

It didn’t take long before Tonga College retaliated with two successive tries to lead comfortably 32 – 24. Entering the last 10 minutes, Tupou College scored a try to trail 29 – 31.

As the game entered into overtime, Tonga College were given a penalty line-out and looked to have won the final. However, the lineout was won by Tupou College – who then made a final push in which their number 12 scored a corner try to win the game.

Tupou College dominated the 2018 Secondary School’s rugby competitions, winning four of six grade competitions. Tupou College won Grade 1, Grade 3, Grade 5 and the Senior Grade Competitions. ‘Apifo’ou College won the Grade 4 competition while Tonga College won Grade 2.