Waikato 27 / 58 Canterbury
Canterbury look unstoppable in this year’s ITM Cup after another slick showing in their second outing, putting Waikato away to the tune of 58-27 in Hamilton tonight.
Stuff NZ.com
Having hammered Auckland 48-9 last weekend, Canterbury racked up eight tries at Waikato Stadium to canter home over the Mooloos, who came into the game confident after beating Wellington away in round one.
But the 11,950 crowd went home somewhat stunned by the ease of which Canterbury did things.
It was a stunning start from the visitors, who raced in for three tries in the opening eight minutes to send shockwaves through the hosts.
With intelligent kicks in behind and slick, wide ball movement, the champs delivered a massive early statement.
In the first minute of the game an awful clearing kick from Albert Nikoro gave Canterbury a gift-wrapped chance, which they took well through a brilliant slicing run from Johnny McNicholl, who gave to Codie Taylor to finish in the left corner.
Soon after, Matt Todd was the recipient of a brilliant offload from the powerful Patrick Osborne, who brushed Damian McKenzie aside.
The Cantabs were running rampant and were nearly in again from the kickoff as they again spun it wide.
Joe Webber spilt a kick but fortunately for him so did Osborne.
However from the ensuing scrum the visitors hit centre field and Matt Symons drove over close to the line, with TMO Aaron Paterson confirming the try in quick time.
Not only were Waikato not seeing the ball, they didn’t help themselves when they had the chance to. Canterbury piggy-backed downfield on the back of a penalty and then another one had Tyler Bleyendaal making it 20-0.
The reply from Waikato came in the form of some great vision from young talent McKenzie, with the first-five reaping turnover ball and kicking ahead from just outside his 22.
With no-one home, McKenzie’s speed got him to the ball first and he gave to Joe Webber to finish.
Waikato then unleashed a secret weapon in the form of Nikoro’s goalkicking boot, with the fullback landing an astonishing 58-metre shot at goal. He had a handy breeze behind him but it cleared with plenty to spare.
As the home side seemed to be getting back into the contest, their confidence was smacked once more as Canterbury notched their bonus point, thanks to brilliant work from Jed Brown, who broke away from a maul and flicked an offload to Milford Keresoma, who had come on for McNicholl – the speedster leaving with a knee injury.
Right on halftime Webber’s twinkle toes almost had Waikato a second five-pointer, but on TMO inspection his foot had brushed the touchline and his side went to the sheds down 30-13.
They came out in the second half a different team though, Waikato, with lots of slick passing and a super chip and chase try down the blindside from captain Brad Weber seeing them close to 30-20.
But back-to-back Canterbury tries put the visitors right back into command-mode.
They hit back swiftly with Willi Heinz offloading for Bleyendaal to cross, then four minutes later Osborne was too strong close to the line.
Waikato continued the try-fest with a super one of their own, O’Donnell going on a fantastic long run and Weber finishing, but the red and blacks then brought up the half century with debutant Jack Goodhue reaching out.
Desperate to salvage a bonus point, Waikato looked likely in the dying stages, but Wharenui Hawera dropped a simple ball – the hosts’ 15th handling error of the match – then in the last minute Tom Sanders crossed for Canterbury’s eighth try to complete the rout.
Hawke’s Bay 29 / 26 Taranaki
A last second dropped goal has given Hawke’s Bay a dramatic 29-26 win over Taranaki in a National Provincial Championship cross over match in Napier tonight.
Both teams were guilty of plenty of errors in a scrappy match in perfect conditions but Hawke’s Bay showed the better composure under pressure.
Hawke’s Bay took a 21-16 lead into the break after scoring two tries to one, although Taranaki crossed first after Seta Tamanivalu went over in the seventh minute.
However, Taranaki’s lead was short-lived after they coughed the ball up minutes later, gifting Hawke’s Bay fullback Ryan Tongia a try under the posts.
While both sides tried to play positive rugby they were stymied by too many mistakes, although the home side’s inside backs did look the more dangerous.
Taranaki enjoyed a 16-10 lead midway through the half through the boot of Codey Rei but it was West who would have the final say of the half, setting up a try to Richard Buckman and slotting a 50m penalty right on the 40 minute mark.
The second half turned into a scrappy affair with most of the game played in the middle of the park.
That was until Tongia grabbed his second after a nice bust by Andrew Horrell to open up a 26-19 lead.
Taranaki had opportunities to draw level but they lacked the patience on attack and basic skills for periods until Marty McKenzie scored to lock it up at 26-26.
North Harbour 21 / 25 Southland
Southland’s big off-season play to lure Highlanders first five-eighth Lima Sopoaga to the Stags has proved to be a masterstroke.
After Sopoaga kicked 19 points to help Southland to a 34-23 round one win over Bay of Plenty, the former Wellington player yet again starred tonight in the Stags’ second-round 25-21 victory over North Harbour in Auckland.
The 23-year-old was the difference between the two teams landing six penalties and a conversion to take his tally to 39 points in two games in the Southland jersey.
Rugby Southland are limited financially and opted to centre much of their off-season recruitment around just getting a player of Sopoaga’s class to run the show at first five-eighth and it is a formula that looks a smart one.
North Harbour out scored Southland two tries to one but it was the boot of Sopoaga that got the Stags home.
Southland did however look very shaky at the start of both halves.
North Harbour opened the scoring after just a minute through first five-eighth Matt McGahan.
Harbour lock Mike Farmer had charged down an attempted clearance from Stags halfback Scott Eade from the base of the ruck, turning over the ball.
The ball was quickly shifted wide and eventually McGahan scooted in for a well worked try.
Sopoaga responded with his first of six penalties with penalty kick from wide out in the fifth minute.
However, when North Harbour scored their second try inside the first 10 minutes of the game it looked ominous for the visitors.
Harbour kept attacking the left hand side of the field where their dangerous weapon in Tevita Li was camped and it paid off.
On On the back of some quick ball halfback Bryn Hall went blindside and setup to feed centre Nafi Tuitavake to score.
At 12-3 up after just 10 minutes it was one way traffic but Southland were able to get more possession and territory and mount some pressure.
In the 35th minute Eade looked to have scored but was deemed by the TMO to be held up. From the scrum hard-running second five-eighth Willis Halaholo crashed over but he too was deemed to be held up after it went to the TMO.
From the next scrum it was third time lucky as impressive Halaholo again got his hands on the ball to jink through the Harbour defence and score. The Sopoaga extras pushed Southland out to a 16-12 lead.
As was the case in the first Harbour made most of the play in the early stages of the second half and through a Matt McGahan penalty and Robbie Robinson dropped goal, the home side hit the lead at 18-16 five minutes into the second half.