Tysons secure three-peat
All Blacks hooker Dane Coles jogged into the Forsyth Barr Stadium sheds at halftime expecting coach Steve Hansen to give the team a rocket.
Sure, they were down by just three points (17-14) against the Wallabies, but they’d just produced an errorriddled first half in Dunedin and Coles couldn’t help but expect a red-faced coach to confront the team.
But a Hansen rev-up wasn’t behind the All Blacks rallying and going on to beat the Wallabies 35-29 and lock up the Bledisloe Cup for a 15th consecutive year.
‘‘To be honest, he was actually pretty calm,’’ Coles said. ‘‘I was expecting it to be the other way, but he was really calm at halftime.’’
Having conceded the last 28 points in Sydney a week ago, the All Blacks sleepwalked out of the gates, falling into a 17-0 hole inside the first 16 minutes.
But they hit back with tries to wing Rieko Ioane and halfback Aaron Smith, who darted over after the halftime hooter had sounded.
‘‘There’s no point rocketing them,’’ Hansen said. ‘‘Sometimes there is, but in this case we didn’t think it was a lack of attitude.
‘‘We probably thought we were too keen . . . it was like a young fella having his first day at school, he’s all over the place. You don’t know what’s going on.’’
Hansen lamented the errors which led to the Wallabies’ three first-half tries, with captain Kieran Read (missed tackle), halfback Smith (defensive breakdown) and fullback Damian McKenzie (intercept) the culprits.
Sonny Bill Williams’ hands - at one stage he made four quick-fire errors - also cost the All Blacks a string of attacking opportunities.
‘‘His timing wasn’t quite right,’’ Hansen said. ‘‘He started to get quite physical, rather than using his skills, and four errors in a row.
‘‘That’s very unlike him and I think that’s just because we were pretty keen to get the job done. At halftime, it was a matter of calming everyone down and understand at 17-14 down we were well and truly in the game.’’
Playing his 50th test, and first in nine months after suffering from lingering concussion symptoms, Coles got through 67 minutes in his long-awaited return in the black jersey.
The All Blacks trailed 22-21 when he was replaced by Codie Taylor, leaving him to watch the frantic finish from the bench in front of the south stand.
While Ben Smith’s try put the home side up 28-22 in the 72nd minute, Wallabies midfielder Kurtley Beale appeared to have snatched the game by diving over under the sticks in the 76th minute.
‘‘I was on the edge of my seat. I’m not a very good watcher . . . it was a good old Bledisloe test match,’’ Coles said. The 30-year-old said Beauden Barrett’s 78th minute matchwinner showed how much belief the team had, and also credited the bench, which was criticised for lacking impact in Sydney a week ago.
‘‘I wasn’t looking too much, but I was pretty gassed when I got the sub. I though the reserves were pretty good [on Saturday], a lot better than they were last week.
‘‘They really came on and added a good impact and added an edge.’’ Unbeaten season - check. Back-toback-to-back titles - check. Tysons have firmly planted themselves at the top of Taranaki premier one netball.
The Waitara side once again proved their dominance by claiming a 59-45 win over Inglewood in the grand final yesterday at the TSB Stadium.
‘‘Everyone thinks it’s a walk in the park when you don’t lose again,’’ Tysons coach Che Tamati said. ‘‘But it’s a real hats-off situation to the girls for staying focused all season with large margins and sticking to the task.’’
After falling behind in the early minutes of the game, Inglewood went on a nice little run to draw level at 6-6.
However, it didn’t take too long for Tysons to go ahead by five goals again, thanks in large part to sharpshooters Amber Ormond and Connie Clement.
Ahead 16-13 after the first quarter, Tysons looked to push on with the job, but Inglewood refused to give way as some solid on-ball defence forced Tysons to turn the ball over.
On the back of their defensive effort, Inglewood went ahead midway through the second quarter, with shooter Wendy Williams on target from all over the circle.
For Inglewood, it was a case of trying to keep the ball away from the Tysons shooters as they rarely missed a shot. For the most part of the quarter they were able to do that, however Tysons did enough to maintain their three-goal lead heading into half-time.
The game took a physical turn in the third period, with bodies flying into one another at both ends of the court as Inglewood drew level again. However Tysons found themselves with a three-goal lead again with about seven minutes to
Tysons 59 Inglewood 45. 1Q: 16-13. HT: 28-25. 3Q: 44-34. Tysons 52 Naumai 51. 1Q: 12-17. HT: 28-27. 3Q:38-40. Waitara High School 52 Inglewood 48. 1Q: 18-14. HT: 29-22. 3Q: 39-35.
go in the quarter - thanks in large part to the defensive prowess of centre Heidi Kiser.
That seemed to give Tysons the momentum they needed to take control, as they continued to build on their lead as they went ahead 44-34 with a quarter of the season to play.
The lead proved to be enough, as they closed out the final quarter to claim a well-deserved win.
‘‘We’re always happy with the win but it wasn’t the clinical game that we wanted to play,’’ Tamati said.
‘‘We really came up against the Inglewood Terminators tonight. We knew they were coming out to play, we just didn’t expect it to be as physical as it was.’’
It was anyone’s guess as to who would take out the premier two final between Tysons and Naumai as the sides proved to be evenly matched throughout. However on the back of some dead-eye shooting in the late stages from Fleur Robertson, Tysons pulled out the onepoint win.
Naumai led after one quarter after a strong start, before Tysons stormed back to go into the halftime break ahead.
However, Naumai took the lead right back in the third, before Tysons stepped things up and sneaked home with the title.
In the premier three final, Waitara High School proved to be too good for Inglewood and claimed a 52-48 win.
Waitara started the match strong the take a seven-goal lead into half-time, however Inglewood fought back to go ahead midway through the third quarter - with poor discipline seeing Waitara lose a player to the sin bin for two minutes.
The High School side were able to right the ship though and were able to pull out the win.