Spirit too good for Taranaki
THE Otago Spirit snapped a twogame losing streak in the Farah Palmer Cup with a 650 drubbing of Taranaki in New Plymouth on Saturday.
But despite a much more polished display on attack, coach Scott Manson said his side still had work to do in that area.
‘‘It was good to get out there and score quite a lot of points after the last couple of weeks where we hadn’t quite scored enough points,’’ he said.
‘‘It was also good to get the bonus point by halftime.
‘‘We were much better in the breakdown area [this week]. We were more effective in our carry and looked after the ball a bit better on the ground.
‘‘Our cleanout was much more effective as well. We did really well in that regard but we still left quite a few points out there.’’
Winger Cheyenne Cunningham can be excluded from that comment. She had a game to remember, scoring a hat trick of tries.
‘‘She has been working on her positioning and popped up at the right place at the right time.’’
Zoe Whatarau put in an impressive performance on the side of the scrum and nabbed two tries as well, while Black Fern Kilisitina Moata’ane made her first appearance for the Spirit this season.
She injured her ankle in the preseason but made her return off the bench and put in a solid 20minute shift.
‘‘She hit the line with pace and urgency and just straightened us up a little bit as well. Defensively she was pretty sound and did well for her first game in six or seven weeks.’’
The Spirit made 10 personnel changes for the game, so there was the potential for an errorridden performance. But it led 220 at the break and ran in seven tries in a onesided second spell.
Erin Adams, Jess Dermody and Canadian Janelle Romanchuck all made their debut for the Spirit.
Romanchuck was one of three Canadians playing in the fixture. Her teammate, Morgan Walker, and Taranaki’s Kate Parkinson completed the trio.
The match also pitted the McCullough sisters against each other. Georgina played in the midfield for Otago, while her sibling Victoria started at lock for the home side.
Otago’s final roundrobin match is against Tasman in Blenheim on Saturday.
The Spirit is safely through to the playoffs of the Championship tier of the Farah Palmer Cup and, on form, should beat Tasman.