Canterbury surge in second half to avoid shock loss
At a glance
Canterbury came back from being down 21-10 at halftime to defeat Counties Manukau 36-31 in the Farah Palmer Cup at Navigation Homes Stadium on Saturday.
The top of the table Canterbury side was outplayed over the first half, making mistakes and not treasuring the ball enough.
However, it was more clinical over the second period, while Counties looked to have run out of gas as Canterbury won the second half 26-10.
In other Premiership matches on Saturday, second-placed Auckland beat Manawatu 32-5 and Waikato beat Bay of Plenty 17-10.
In the second-tier Championship yesterday, Tasman hammered North Harbour 42-15 and leaders Otago thumped Taranaki 55-15. Hawke’s Bay accounted for Northland 32-17 on Saturday.
Canterbury’s loose forwards were impressive at the breakdown, while their more mobile tight five
In Pukekohe: Canterbury 36 (Amy Du Plessis, Lucy Jenkins, Grace Steinmetz, Martha Mataele, Rosie Kelly tries; Kendra Cocksedge 3 con, pen, Kelly con) Counties Manukau 31 ( Hazel Tubic, Ruby Tui, Langi Veainu tries, penalty try; Tubic 3 con, pen). HT: 10-21.
gradually got on top against Counties.
But it didn’t start that way. In the 14th minute Counties were awarded a penalty try when lock Stacey Niao tapped out of play a chip kick from Ruby Tui that went in goal, something that not only cost Canterbury seven points, but Niao was also sent to the bin.
Canterbury struck back quickly, with centre Amy Du Plessis hitting a gap in the Counties’ defence near the halfway line and she ran all the way home untouched to score.
In the 25th minute Counties scored again. The initial hard work was done by Leilani Perese, Joanna Fanene Lolo and the other forwards crashing the ball up on the right. The ball was then spun to the other flank and Hazel Tubic, celebrating her 50th game for the province, squirmed out of a tackle to score.
With six minutes in the opening half to go, Kendra Cocksedge kicked a penalty to move within four points of Counties.
However, before the change of ends Tubic put up a wonderful cross field kick to Tui, who caught it at pace and ran in for Counties’ third try.
Canterbury were on fire for the start of the second half, with Lucy Jenkins and Grace Steinmetz both scoring tries in the first six minutes.
Langi Veainu, who replaced Tui at halftime, intercepted a pass on the Canterbury 22m line to run in for a try to put Counties back in front, but the lead didn’t last with winger Martha Mataele taking a pass under the posts for a close range try.
When Rosie Kelly scored Canterbury’s fifth try with 12 minutes to go, she gave her team some breathing space, which Tubic closed to five points with a penalty three minutes from time to secure a bonus point.