Magpies break Harbour hearts
BRODIE Retallick has made a successful return to rugby, and his Hawke’s Bay side have hung onto the Ranfurly Shield, just.
A Tevita Li hat-trick and another accomplished display from captain Bryn Gatland looked to have powered North Harbour to rare Shield glory in Napier yesterday.
However, this Magpies side just don’t know how to throw in the towel, and with a 75th-minute try to reserve hooker Kianu Kereru-Symes, they produced the required fightback to triumph 25-23 in a thriller at McLean Park.
In his first NPC appearance since 2012, Retallick was solid and not spectacular, as he aims for a return to the All Blacks against the Pumas in Hamilton next weekend.
And it was just after he left the field that it appeared Harbour had struck the killer blow.
In what was the try of the game, Shaun Stevenson started the 70-metre effort then sent Li gassing down the left-hand touch to put the visitors up 23-15 and full of belief.
The Bay crowd didn’t exactly have reason for optimism after that, either, as they watched their side cough up possession and so often lose out at the breakdown to the hungry Harbour fetchers.
But their Hawke’s Bay boys have been here plenty before in this reign.
With 10 minutes to play Lincoln McClutchie banged over a penalty to narrow the margin to five, and with Kereru-Symes getting over the ball and winning a turnover penalty, the No 10 then drilled the hosts into Harbour’s danger zone.
Rewards weren’t immediately forthcoming, but when Stevenson was yellow-carded for slowing the ball down on the line, they kicked for a close-range lineout and then indeed came up trumps out wide from the rolling maul.
Golden point loomed large but McClutchie nailed the tough conversion attempt.
Earlier, it was the Bay who had flexed their muscle at scrum time and had the better of the first half before going to the sheds behind.
After a nervy start from both teams, McClutchie nicely put Chase Tiatia into a hole, with the fullback brilliantly jinking 15 metres to open the scoring in the 10th minute.
Having got the visitors on the board on the quarter hour,
Gatland could have had another three off the tee a few minutes later, but instead opted to chance the arm with a quick tap.
It proved a great call as he put Cameron Suafoa into a heap of space and Li was sent into the lefthand corner to give the challengers the lead However, the Magpies hit straight back in sending Lolagi Visini strolling over out wide.
With Tiatia succumbing to a rib injury before halftime, the home side then suffered another big blow on the stroke of the break when Tyrone Thompson’s lineout throw sailed over the arms of Retallick for Harbour to pounce and send Li spinning over for his double. Gatland’s superb sideline conversion put Harbour up 15-12 at the break, but they turned into the wind and then sure felt a full Hawke’s Bay puff late on.
The Magpies’ next Shield defence comes against Southland on September 10.
Meanwhile, later yesterday, Auckland bounced back from last
Sunday’s home loss to Bay of Plenty to beat Otago 35-17 at Eden Park.
Both teams had 3-1 records heading into the game, but it was one-way traffic as Auckland were awarded a penalty try from a scrum – memories of the 1995 final, anyone? – almost six minutes after the halftime siren, and took a commanding 21-0 lead to the break.
Then, despite going down to 13 men after two separate yellow card incidents in the 67th minute and conceding two tries in that period, the hosts still did enough to seal a bonus-point win which puts them back on top of the Evens pool.