Canterbury wary of Lions

Canterbury only need to relive four minutes of footage to know how lethal Wellington can be in the Mitre 10 Cup.

The red-and-blacks meet the Lions in the capital on Saturday night in the premiership semifinal, looking to advance to their fifth straight final.

The TAB haven’t been able to separate the sides (both paying $1.87) and Canterbury will be mindful of what Wellington can do when they put it together on attack.

Wellington won the round clash 23-22, torching Canterbury with two tries within a four minute span after the halftime break.

‘‘They found a lot of grass in the backfield,’’ Canterbury coach Joe Maddock said.

‘‘Again we’ve put a fair bit of effort in defending the kick space. I think we’ve grown in that area a lot throughout the year.

‘‘Other than that we know if we nail our systems, we make our tackles and when we’ve got the ball we’re accurate [we’ll be fine].’’

Canterbury’s campaign started dismally, dropping their opening three games, including the loss to Wellington.

For a while, it looked like the premiership giants might be flirting with the embarrassing prospect of relegation. They clicked into gear though, winning six of their next seven and capturing the Ranfurly Shield from Otago.

Wellington have been steady, winning seven of their 10 games with a draw thrown in, and the danger they presented hadn’t been lost on Maddock’s side.

‘‘They’re big bodies. They’ve got ball carriers and they’ve also got their electric guys on the outside,’’ Canterbury centre Braydon Ennor said. ‘‘There’s threats all around the park. We’ve just got to look out for them’’. Canterbury haven’t been helped by a horror injury run at hooker with rakes Brodie McAlister and Seb Siataga both ruled out this week. American-born Shilo Klein will wear the No.2 jersey, being backed up by Nick Souchon, who has been called back from a loan spell with Otago.

Adding to Canterbury’s injury woes are the unavailability of veteran midfielder Tim Bateman (hamstring), wing Ngane Punivai (knee) and prop Harry Allan (shoulder).

Since a sloppy 32-29 home loss to Manawatu¯ , Canterbury have strung together three victories on the bounce, including Sunday’s lastgasp win over North Harbour to defend the Log o’ Wood for the summer.

‘‘If I go back to round one, I think we’ve grown a lot,’’ Maddock said. ‘‘We’ve learned a lot as a group, We’ve really connected over the 11 weeks. It probably took a little bit longer than we thought, but we’ve got there.’’

Canterbury would dearly love to topple Wellington and ensure departing captain Luke Whitelock (Pau in France) and unwanted All Blacks prop Owen Franks (Northampton) have a chance at a title the following week.