Dragons and Panthers fight at top

Leading Senior A rugby team the Ngatangiia-Matavera Dragons will take on second placed and defending rugby champions the Tupapa Panthers at Victoria Park in the main CITC match of the week.

As this will be the final match of the round competition – the table-topping Dragons, on 37 points, have an unassailable lead in the Senior A grade closely followed by the Panthers on 30 points while the Arorangi Cowboys and Avatiu Eels are joint in third with 29 points.

While the Dragons have won the round competition outright they will want to continue to build momentum leading into next week’s semis, which will hopefully lead towards a championship title in 2012 – something that has eluded the club since 1979.

This weekend’s matches will see three teams – the Panthers, Cowboys and Eels all scrapping for second, third and fourth places. The advantage of placing second will mean ‘two lives’ come semi finals time.

The third placed team will win home ground advantage when they host next weekend’s third and fourth place semi-finals play-off.

The last time the Panthers and Dragons met was during round five with the Dragons edging out the Panthers 30-22.

One of their stars that day was national sevens rep and lethal Dragons midfielder Sailosi Nagi who scored two tries, however due to a dislocated shoulder sustained at last week’s Oceania sevens tournament in Sydney, Nagi will not play in today’s match.

Nagi, together with fellow national sevens rep and midfield partner Thomas Toa, have been the ‘x-factor’ for the Dragons all season.

The Panthers seem to be coming together nicely and have been winning the ‘hard’ matches over the past fortnight including clinching their bruising encounter 23-22 against the Cowboys and beating the Eels18-14 so playing on their home-ground the Panthers will probably start favorites in today’s match.

As usual the Panthers will look to their leadership group of number 8 and captain Kore Herman and their classy utility back Turori Matutu for guidance in hopefully leading their team to victory.

For the Dragons this will be an ideal opportunity to test player depth and obviously try some new combinations before next weekend’s semis.

Prepare for an exciting weekend of local rugby and get out and support your team.

In other games at the weekend the Eels and Cowboys will go head to head in Arorangi while the Reds will host the Bulls at the BCI Stadium.

Full draw and referee appointment on page 14