Counties, Canterbury on top

Canterbury has joined Counties Manukau at the top of the Farah Palmer Cup Premiership table thanks to a 48-12 win over the Manawatu¯ Cyclones.

The defending champions, who held a 29-0 halftime lead, conceded two second-half tries to the Cyclones yesterday but managed 19 second-half points of their own to secure their third win of the season.

The bonus point victory for the red-and-blacks promotes them to be tied with Counties on 17 competition points ahead of their clash in Christchurch on Sunday.

That match looks likely to decide who finishes on top of the Premiership table.

Counties Manukau temporarily moved to the outright top of the table on Saturday with a 39-8 victory over Otago in Dunedin.

Waikato, who also have three wins courtesy of their 45-14 trouncing of Auckland on Saturday, sit third on the premiership ladder with 15 points.

It’s Waikato’s second successive win against Auckland after claiming their first since the national women’s provincial rugby competition began in 1999 just last October.

In the early game yesterday, the Wellington Pride cemented their place at the top of the championship table with an 88-3 thumping of the Tasman Mako.

The Pride, who held a 31-3 lead at halftime, put on 57 unanswered points in the second half.

Wellington’s third victory of the season took them to 16 competition points, two clear of the second-placed Hawkes Bay Tuis.

Hawke’s Bay beat North Harbour 52-10 in Napier on Saturday to record their third victory of the Championship.

On Friday, Bay of Plenty kicked off the round by gaining their first points of the season with a 73-0 demolition of Taranaki in Rotorua. Taranaki are the only side yet to register a victory in either division.

And after experiencing the kind of emotional torment retirement-bound Slater will go through before his shoulder charge-related hearing, Ricketson is as certain as ever the rules need to chance.

‘‘Maybe this is the incident we need,’’ he said.

‘‘I don’t know what that the system would look like – whether you pay a tougher penalty the next year or a fines system, but there’s got to be a joker card here somewhere.

‘‘Particularly in these ones where it’s more careless than intent . . . and for someone with a clean record.

‘‘You get these out-of-the-box incidents that are going to put him out of a grand final and his last game.’’

Slater has received backing from several quarters since Friday night’s barge on Sosaia Feki, which bumped the Sharks winger into touch as he looked like scoring.

Warriors hooker Issac Luke, who missed Souths’ 2014 grand final triumph through suspension, hoped Slater would be able to play.

Luke, who felt the pain of watching from the sideline four years ago at the Rabbitohs, took to social media to voice his support for Slater.

‘‘I reckon he should play,’’ Luke said on Twitter.

‘‘No matter what the crime is ... Because that last week sucks not being apart (sic) of it even though the club done everything for me to be part of it.’’

Luke is one of several big names on a list of players to have missed grand finals through suspension, alongside the likes of Melbourne skipper Cameron Smith, rugby league Immortal Arthur Beetson and legendary Balmain prop Steve Roach.

Smith has since said missing the 2008 decider against Manly still haunts him, while Roach

‘‘For the sake of the game of RL, I hope an experienced and sensible judiciary panel will see it that way.’’

admitted 20 years after the 1988 grand final that his absence still caused him pain.

Slater received backing from an unexpected source, with Penrith boss and Nine Network commentator Phil Gould tweeting a message of support from former judiciary chairman Paul Conlon.

‘‘He braced for inevitable contact a metre from the corner post’’ the message from Conlon said.

‘‘What he actually did could not be actually said to involve unacceptable risk of injury. There was no contact with the head of Feki – therefore no danger.

‘‘For the sake of the game of RL, I hope an experienced and sensible judiciary panel will see it that way.’’

But Ricketson feared the worst for the veteran, as he detailed his own pain of watching his team and prepare and play Canterbury in 2004 a week after he’d punched North Queensland’s Nathan Fien.

‘‘It’s horrible. Looking back on it, it’s probably the lowlight of your career,’’ Ricketson said.