Narrow win not enough
A 29-26 win over North Harbour has not been enough for the Taranaki Development rugby side to defend their Northern Regions competition title.
Taranaki went in to Saturday’s match at New Plymouth’s Vogeltown Park knowing they had to win and rely on Counties Manukau beating competition leaders Auckland to go into the last round with a chance of winning back-toback titles.
However, Counties Manukau lost, meaning the best Taranaki can now do is finish second when they travel north to face Auckland.
They will probably need to improve on how they played against North Harbour in a match that could have gone either way and was punctuated by a high number of penalties, especially around the breakdown.
Taranaki did start the better, opening the scoring after wing Liam Blyde scored following a simple blindside move from a 5m scrum.
They doubled their advantage a short time later when Ethan Perrett finished off a sweeping move that probably contained some of the best play of the match.
Some poor discipline allowed North Harbour to score a short time later but Taranaki’s advantage was restored when hooker Scott Mellow crashed over following an attacking lineout.
Taranaki’s advantage would have been more at the break had captain Matthew Kissick not been held up over the line and they almost looked like they would eventually regret that when North Harbour took the lead midway through the second half after scoring twice in quick time.
The introduction of first fiveeighth Matt McKenzie a short time after proved a late turning point for Taranaki as he came on to land two crucial penalties before the home side switched off and let the visitors score from the kick-off.
Taranaki did have the final say, however, with Blyde scoring his second as they held on for the win.
There were some good performances from several Taranaki players, including loose forwards Dylan Juffermans, Kissick and Perrett while lock Jack Jordan was prominent.
Taranaki Mitre 10 Cup squad members Mike Kainga, Asa Sorovaki and Logan Crowley all came through their allocated minutes without incident.