Taranaki sneak past Manawatu
Taranaki found a bonus-point win late at a rain-soaked Yarrow Stadium to beat Manawatu 30-19 in their Mitre 10 Cup crossover match yesterday.
Having only picked up one fivepointer this season, the win, even though it was ugly, helped Taranaki stay with the leaders in the premiership as the competition heads into its final stages.
There were few bright spots and Taranaki only found them late after it looked for a long time like Manawatu might grab their second big scalp of the week after they beat Canterbury last round.
The fact they didn’t was down to Taranaki’s dogged approach more than anything else.
The first half was as gloomy as the weather, which was largely to blame for the stop-start nature of the match, as both sides struggled to handle the slippery conditions.
Manawatu took a 16-15 lead into the break, largely off the boot of Otere Black who landed three penalties and converted Ambrose Curtis’ try which was easily the best move off set-piece ball.
Taranaki, on the other hand, reverted to driving the ball forward whenever they got the opportunity.
They picked up two tries from their tactic, the first to young prop Reuben O’Neill and the second to halfback Kylem O’Donnell who found the blindside vacant after he whipped the ball away from a maul that was heading to the line.
Aside from that there was a lot of kicking, with most of it coming from the base of the Taranaki ruck.
The only other real talking point from the half was the fact Manawatu No 8 Heiden BedwellCurtis somehow went unpunished after he landed a a swinging shot on the nose of Taranaki captain Marty McKenzie.
Despite it being right in front of referee Brett Johnson, the man with the whistle opted to let it go.
The start to the second half was equally as stodgy as Taranaki’s poor option-taking continued to cause puzzlement.