The challenge is on today for the last day of the club rugby semi finals in the lead up to next week’s grand finals.

All games today are at the BCI Stadium in Nikao starting with the Under 12s play offs at 11am.

CITC Senior B Grade: Cowboys vs Eels

Arch-rivals the Arorangi Cowboys and the Avatiu-Nikao Eels will go head-to-head in this Senior B Grade match to find out who will meet the Bulls in next-week’s Senior B Grade Grand Final.

In last week’s first Round of semi’s the Cowboys just lost by 9-10 against the Titikaveka Bulls last week – squandering opportunities towards the end of the match to kick the winning points. The Eels on the other hand were impressive 43-0 winners against the Takuvaine Reds.

The Cowboys and Eels have met twice this season in round-robin play with the Cowboys winning the first match and the Eels squaring the ledger with the 3-0 victory two weeks ago.

Both teams boast many ex-Senior A Graders and national reps from yesteryear so this should be a great show piece of rugby.

CITC Senior A Grade: Eels vs Reds

In a battle of the city cousins this is sure to be a close one with both teams having played twice this season with one win each – the Takuvaine Reds winning 19-8 (round 3) and the Avatiu-Nikao Eels winning 13-12(round 8).

The Reds have been the big movers and shakers this season a real surprise package built on the back of a strong forward pack.

With their monster pack of forwards, the Reds forwards have been in dominant form all season and they have easily dominated the forward exchanges in previous Reds versus Eels encounters. However the Reds inability to utilise possession and position and turn this advantage into points has been their undoing. Indecision and lack of composure at crucial times has not helped their cause either.

The Reds best players to date have been loosehead prop Victor Mataora, number 8 and captain Travel Tou Jnr, openside flanker Teina Savage and strong-running midfielder Fou Samania–who has been under-utilised lately.

After a slow start to the season, the 2012 Champions the Eels are peaking at the right time of the season and they have been the masters of converted limited opportunities into points. Their composure under pressure, the potential point scoring ability throughout their whole team– and probably their strongest weapon– their trademark strong finish– is compliments of a strong reserves bench.

The Eels best players to date have been utility back Peter Tare, big midfielder Silafi Tovio with their ultra-competitive pack of forwards together with a strong Reserves bench.

Although there will be extra-pressure and expectation on the defending champions the Eels, if the Reds are to have any chance of winning they will have to chase the win and starve the opposition of quality possession–and also provide more ball for their strong-running midfielder Fou Samania–who scored one of the individual tries of the year, an 80 metre solo effort against the Eels in their last match.

Only the winners from this weekend will survive and progress to play in next week’s CITC Rarotonga Club Grand Finals. Bests of luck to all teams playing this weekend.