Northern retake rugby lead

THE RACE for the TT Rugby Football Union (TTRFU) Championship Division crown will go down to the last match day, after Stag Trinidad Northern crushed Royalians 38-7 at President's Ground, St Ann's, on Saturday, to take a one-point lead in the standings.

James Phillip scored a try in each half for Northern, who took a 19-7 lead at the break.

Marcellus McHardy, Lemor Ellis, Sebastien Navarro and Ade Innis King also scored a try each for Northern.

Navarro was on target with four of five conversion attempts. Felician Guerra converted after Wasim Ollivierre lone first half try for Royalians.

Northern's win coincided with a 27-21 victory for Harvard over previous leaders Caribs.

Harvard moved within three points from the top with the result and remain with a slim chance of winning the league. They will have to defeat Royalians and hope for a draw between Northern and Caribs. If either Northern or Caribs win their final match, that team will lift the title. The two matches will play on Saturday, with Royalians and Northern hosting them.

There was end-to-end action in the second half of Harvard's victory over Caribs at the Queen's Park Savannah, Port of Spain. Harvard got off the mark in the 17th minute through a Claudius Butts try, who added a second 15 minutes later. Aasan Lewis and Antonio Jardine scored a penalty and conversion respectively.

Kalon Alexander scored Caribs' only try of the half, which was converted by Reinaldo Bermudez.

Caribs came within one point of Harvard when they opened the scoring in the second half with a try from Anderson Joseph, which was converted again by Bermudez. The match went out of Caribs' reach when Jardine converted off Caleb Hector's try to make it 22-14.

Nigel Ballington scored Harvard's final try, before Caribs tried in vain at a final thrust, with Geddes Phillip touching down and Bermudez converting for the third time.

Standings

Teams*Pld*W*D*L*F*A*Bonus*Pts

Northern*5*4*0*1*136*38*2*18

Caribs*5*3*0*2*136*97*5*17

Harvard*5*3*0*2*198*88*3*15

Royalians*5*0*0*5*87*184*0*0