An act of good sportsmanship helped Rathkeale College to a 17-12 win over St John’s College of Hawke’s Bay in their Central North Island first XV secondary schools rugby competition match at Rathkeale on Saturday.

St John’s looked to have scored a late try which could have won them the game after they ran the ball from their own goal line and their centre slashed through the Rathkeale defence.

The attack veered towards the sideline where a touch judge missed seeing the ball carrier putting a foot on the line as the final touchdown was made.

But fortunately for Rathkeale, St John’s coach Grant McFarland did see the mistake and after he entered the field and spoke to referee Goff Moorcock, the try was disallowed.

“It was a tremendous example of good sportsmanship and typifies just what this competition is all about,” Rathkeale manager Brian James said. “You are expected to play hard but you are also expected to play fair, we can’t speak highly enough of what Grant did.”

Rathkeale’s win came on the back of a hefty 72-10 defeat at the hands of Francis Douglas the previous weekend and James was delighted with their commitment on both attack and defence. Louis Vollebregt, Tom Penn and Dylon Lord-Bune scored the Rathkeale tries.