Canterbury declare at 78-5
Nope, that wasn’t a replay of Canterbury walloping Southland last Friday night.
But it was the red-and-blacks again defending the Ranfurly Shield in emphatic fashion, this time with a crunching 78-5 win against Counties Manukau in Christchurch.
Their incredible 43-point first half onslaught at AMI Stadium last night followed on from the 61 points they racked up in the second half of their 78-20 annihilation of the Stags.
Last week it was wing Braydon Ennor bagging four tries; this week it was halfback Mitchell Drummond doing the same as the reigning champions notched their fifth consecutive bonus-point win.
Defending the Shield for the fifth time (including pre-season games) this year, means only Waikato and Taranaki can deny the rampant Cantabrians from locking up the Log o’ Wood for summer.
The 73-point win was Canterbury’s biggest ever against Counties, and their 139th Shield defence in team history. Only Auckland (148) have more.
Some of the gloss was taken off the win by an apparent knee injury to captain Luke Whitelock, who hobbled off early in the second half and is sure to at least miss Sunday’s away game against Wellington.
But that was about the only thing the Canterbury faithful could complain about.
Their side ran in 11 tries to one, with vice-captain and centre Tim Bateman grabbing his second try four minutes into the second half to put his side 50-0 up.
In the middle of their ‘‘storm week’’ (three games in 10 days), Canterbury coach Glenn Delaney had the luxury of going to the bench early. Ennor, who has just signed a two-year deal with the Crusaders, again showed what a talent he is with his 20th-minute try.
The 20-year-old did brilliantly well to swap the ball between hands in mid-flight, as he expertly dived over inside the corner flag.
As were most of Canterbury’s tries, Ennor’s effort was the result of slick passing and a backline launching off a fine platform set by their forwards.
On the other side of the ledger, Counties battled to string anything together.
If they weren’t missing tackles, they were fluffing passes, having kicks charged down or giving up penalties.
They finally got on the board in the 47th minute courtesy of wing Nigel Ah Wong, but the game and the safe keeping of the Shield was well and truly secure by then.