Counties surge into semis
Counties Manukau have secured a spot in the Mitre 10 Cup Premiership semifinals for the first time since 2013 with a stunning 33-21 win over Canterbury yesterday.
The Steelers needed just a point to finish the season in the top four and they made certain of this midway through the second half, by picking up their fourth try.
But that’s not where it ended for the Steelers, who recorded their first victory against Canterbury in 18 years.
The win means Counties move up to third in the standings and they will stay there and face Taranaki next weekend, unless Tasman record a win with a bonus point against Southland today.
For the first 20 minutes it looked as if Canterbury were going to run away with this game, spending nearly all that time in Counties’ half, but the only try of the first spell went to Tony Pulu from the Steelers.
But in the second half Counties came to life with four more tries and Canterbury looked far from being the red hot favourites to be New Zealand provincial champions.
‘‘In the first half we were bullied a bit, which we don’t like,’’ Counties coach Darryl Suasua said.
‘‘The body height was a bit too high in the collisions and it was taking us too long to get the ball down, so we could get our cleaners in to affect things.’’
Counties have now beaten Auckland and Canterbury this season and despite being a small province, Suasua says they don’t get overawed by going up against the big guns.
‘‘It’s what your mum and dad tells you when you’re a kid,’’ he said.
‘‘They’ve got two arms and two legs like everyone else and if you prepare well, you can take on anyone.’’
For Canterbury, while it’s a blow to lose their second game of the season, the defeat means nothing, although they can be sure of getting some tough training sessions during the week after this wakeup call.
Canterbury coach Scott Robertson hoped complacency wasn’t an issue for his team, but it will be something he’ll address with his players.
‘‘We’d planned all week to play a desperate Steelers side, we’d talked about it, created enough opportunities but just didn’t execute,’’ Robertson said.
‘‘I don’t like using that word [complacency] in the teams I coach, but for whatever reason our work ethic was high, but our execution was low.
‘‘I’ll ask the boys and see what they say.’’
With it being possible that these two teams will face each other again in Christchurch next weekend, they were both able to have a decent look at each other in this game and as Canterbury have some players to bring back, that could count in their favour.
‘‘It could potentially, everything we talked about and planned for, they did and we didn’t stop it,’’ Robertson said.
‘‘They were good, they played to their strength and they took their opportunities. They were desperate and showed how much they cared.’’