Precious bonus point keeps Lions’ semifinal hopes alive
Wellington are safe from relegation in the Mitre 10 Cup and have also kept their premiership semifinal hopes alive after a bonus-point win over Manawatu¯ in the capital yesterday.
The Lions’ 31-5 victory ensures they will not finish in bottom spot on the congested points table and they are still in with a chance of fourth place, and a trip to Eden Park to face Auckland in next weekend’s semifinals.
Wellington needed four tries but it never looked like coming easy until they eventually clicked into gear and bagged their bonus point in the 66th minute.
Manawatu scored first midway through the first half with a superb try to centre Josiah Maraku.
Wellington hit back on the half-hour, as finally they got some time in the Turbos’ 22m and Jackson Garden-Bachop then Vaea Fifita provided nice passes, before prop Xavier Numia charged over.
Turning with just a 7-5 lead, the Lions needed to find three tries in the second stanza.
Less than two minutes in, they netted the first, when a missed penalty touchfinder from GardenBachop went unpunished, and a counter-attack saw Billy Proctor make a brilliant break, then pop a ball inside for winger Pepesana
Patafilo to race away.
With 18 minutes to go the hosts worked their way upfield, creating an overlap for No 8 Teariki Ben-Nicholas to stroll over. And five minutes later they had their fourth, as an awful Stewart Cruden pass was intercepted by Patafilo, who seared away then offloaded for replacement Vince Aso to dive over.
Ironically, Patafilo was then yellow-carded on his next intercept attempt in the 77th minute, but by then it all didn’t matter.