North Shore Times (New Zealand)
Harbour Hibiscus sign off with big win
Harbour Hibiscus’ final game in the 2016 Farah Palmer Cup was a historic victory.
North Harbour and Otago had never met in the Farah Palmer Cup or any of the preceding national women’s rugby competitions until Saturday afternoon.
Under the roof of Dunedin’s Forsyth Barr Stadium, Harbour were triumphant, 39-7, over a winless Otago Spirit side.
Briar McNamara, Florida Fatanitivake, Chelsea Alley, Rina Paraone, Charmaine Smith and Claudia McMeekin all ran in tries.
This was Harbour’s biggest winning margin all season and a positive end to their first season back in the top tier of the national competition.
Harbour sign off their season with two wins and four losses.
The team beat Bay of Plenty 31-11 in the opening round, before a string of losses to Waikato 22-12, Counties Manukau 42-3, Canterbury 50-7 and Manawatu 24-29 in their penultimate match.
This season was the first time a senior women’s fifteens side had represented Harbour in over a decade.
Getting back into the top competition was a focus on the Union for the last couple of years.
After the final round of regular season play in the nine-team Farah Palmer Cup, Counties Manukau finished top of the table with 29 points with Auckland second on 26. Canterbury finished third on 25 points. Wellington claimed the last finals berth.
Auckland have dominated women’s provincial rugby and are aiming for the ninth consecutive title.
The North Harbour men’s side were unable to replicate the women’s success, losing 24-13 against their Southern counterparts on Saturday.
Otago outscored Harbour two tries to one. Only a point separated the teams after the first half, as Otago led 14-3 early, only for Harbour to claw their way back into the match scoring the last 10 points of the half.
The undefeated Championship leaders, Otago, now have five wins against championship teams and a win against premiership side Tasman. Whereas Harbour is fifth in the championship section with two wins and three losses, and host winless Southland at QBE Stadium on Sunday.