Hawke’s Bay hoping for third time lucky in promotion bid
The Hawke’s Bay Tui have earned themselves another shot at promotion to the Farah Palmer Cup Premiership after beating the Northland Kauri 28-19 in their Championship semifinal.
They will play either the Otago Spirit or the North Harbour Hibiscus in this week’s final, with a place in the top tier up for grabs.
Hawke’s Bay have made it to their third consecutive Championship decider in a row, but had to come from behind after trailing Northland 14-11 at halftime at their McLean Park home in Napier.
Two penalties from Tui firstfive Krysten Cottrell on top of an early try from fullback Rakai McCafferty were cancelled out by tries for the Kauri from Hikitia Wikaira and Ana Allen, which were both converted by Black Fern Krystal Murray.
Hawke’s Bay lost Jess Bennett to the sin-bin just two minutes into the second half after she was penalised for not rolling away, but didn’t let that stop them from surging back into the lead.
Kathleen Brown scored the try that put the hosts back in front. Cottrell added a conversion, then a penalty that pushed Hawke’s Bay’s lead out to seven points.
A third try, from Amelia
Pasikala with eight minutes to play, sealed the win. Tyler Nankivell scored a consolation try for Northland with two minutes to play.
They might have fancied setting up a frenetic final minute, but Murray’s missed conversion left the Kauri trailing by nine, needing to score twice in the space of 60 seconds.
Hawke’s Bay will be hoping it’s a case of third time lucky in the final, after losing to Otago in 2019 and Manawatā in 2021.
There was no Premiership/ Championship split in 2020, as Covid-19 forced NZ Rugby into running a competition along regional lines.
Otago have won all five of their matches this season, including a 44-22 triumph over Hawke’s Bay in round one, and will be favourites to beat North Harbour in Sunday’s semifinal in Dunedin.