Brilliant first forty puts Spirit in final
SCOTT Manson could talk all day about the magnificent performance of the Otago Spirit in the first half of the Farah Palmer Cup championship semifinal.
As for the second half, well, perhaps circle back to those first 40 minutes again.
The Spirit was quite sublime in the first half of the semifinal at Forsyth Barr Stadium yesterday, obliterating North Harbour 375 with a wonderful display of running rugby.
‘‘That was outstanding. It was always sort of our plan to play wide and move things around, because we are good at that,’’ coach Manson said.
‘‘When we get our breakdown right, we can do it.’’
And there’s the rub. For Manson felt the Otago women very much did not get the breakdown right in the second half.
‘‘Some of our cleanout was poor, which then made it hard for our [No] 9, which then made it hard to play off.’’
Perhaps an inevitable mental lapse after being so far ahead at the break?
‘‘It could be, couldn’t it? How often are you leading 375 at halftime?’’
Manson pointed out he was still a very proud coach as the Spirit sealed a 4217 win to reach the final, where it will play Hawke’s Bay with a place in the toptier premiership at stake.
Rather oddly, that final will be at the Balclutha Showgrounds on Saturday, as the stadium is booked for some seasonending club football.
‘‘We’re absolutely stoked to be in the final,’’ Manson said.
‘‘We got the job done and we move on to the next one.’’
When the Spirit fired yesterday, it was beautiful to watch.
That encompassed props Isla Pringle and Paige Church throwing themselves into everything, openside flanker Leah Miles buzzing around with purpose, Sheree Hume running the show from first five, and winger Olivia Fowler showing her speed.
It especially meant the sight of Keely Hill running amok from second five.
‘‘When she makes contact, she just keeps going and going, with three or four people hanging off her sometimes,’’ Manson said.
The Spirit made a disastrous start when it conceded the opening try after just two minutes.
North Harbour winger Lucia Bolton appeared to be well wrapped up in a team tackle but she freed her arms and slipped a pass to second five Hayley Hutuna, who raced to the line.
Otago needed to shrug off that early setback and it did so quickly and impressively.
The enterprise from the home team was admirable, and it soon equalised — albeit in slightly fortuitous circumstances when a dropped ball went backwards and almost straight to Hume, who just had to scoop it up to score.
After Georgia Cormick kicked a penalty, Otago extended its lead with the try of the game.
Fowler gathered the ball 60km from the line, put on the afterburners, weaved in and out to deceive the last Harbour defender, and was mobbed by her teammates when she completed a wonderful individual effort.
Not to be outdone, bustling Otago flanker Miles swooped on a turnover and showed her turn of pace to score from 40m, and suddenly the Spirit held a 205 lead.
Then came a wild three minutes to end the half.
Fowler grabbed her second, centre Cheyenne Cunningham scored a 55m intercept try, Cunningham almost immediately grabbed her second try on the end of a sparkling team move, and it was game over with 40 minutes to play.
It had been such a thrilling finish to the first half that it was almost anticlimactic when there was no scoring at all in the first 14 minutes of the second.
There was a nice moment when hooker Tegan Hollows burrowed over to score in her 50th game for the Spirit, and North Harbour grabbed a couple of consolation tries, but the game rather petered out.
The premiership final will be between Canterbury and Auckland.
Canterbury thumped Wellington 313, and Auckland upset defending champion Waikato 2621.