Finals curse strikes again for Wellington
IHAIA WEST, you beauty.
In a moment the Hawke’s Bay first five-eighth must have rehearsed countless times growing up, he kicked a sideline conversion, virtually on fulltime, to win his team a title.
The Magpies will play in the national provincial rugby premiership final next year after beating Wellington 26-25 in last night’s final at McLean Park.
The Magpies were behind for almost the entire match, but have won promotion to domestic rugby’s top-tier to perhaps salve the wounds of losing the Ranfurly Shield a fortnight ago.
For Wellington it was agony, after they made the ideal start when quick hands down the blindside from loose forwards Vaea Fifita and Ardie Savea put Matt Proctor in space. The centre burst down field and fed inside to the trailing Frae Wilson. Jackson Garden-Bachop’s conversion made it 7-0 after two minutes.
Provided referee Nick Briant wasn’t penalising them, the Lions dominated. Wing Cory Jane scored a try to help put the Lions 20-6 up after 30 minutes, but attacking raids were being thwarted by Briant, while the Magpies got kicking chances on the rare times they ventured past halfway.
West kicked three first-half penalties, before centre Robbie Fruean scored a try after the hooter. Again, Briant saw something he didn’t like and blew against Wellington and Hawke’s Bay hammered away long enough to get Fruean one-on-one with first five-eighth Jonny Bentley. West added the extras to send the Magpies into halftime down 20-16.
No doubt the penalties were all legitimate. They just weren’t obvious.
It was all a bit unfair on the Lions, in the sense that they had been the best team in the first 40 minutes but finished up without a great deal to show for it. They had lived up to their pre-match goal of playing positive, expansive rugby and it was going to be interesting to see if they had the courage of their convictions in the second half as well.
But before they’d really had a chance to show it, Briant was awarding Hawke’s Bay another penalty. West had now kicked 5/5, to make the score 20-19.
And then he had one more opportunity. Thankfully for the Lions, this one was beyond West’s range.
To be fair, Wellington hadn’t always helped themselves. They’d half do the job at the breakdown, before the Magpies or the ref intervened. If the Lions had recycled the ball properly and cleared bodies with more vigour, they might not have had an issue.
The 59th minute was a case in point. Wellington were building a promising attack in the Hawke’s Bay 22, only to allow Briant another opportunity to penalise them. It hadn’t cost them the final yet, but it would do if they weren’t careful.
It was Jane who finally broke things open, wriggling over to score in the 67th minute after a quality buildup. The conversion was astray but the 20-minute stalemate was over.
As time ran down Hawke’s Bay wing Emerson Mason, who hadn’t had a happy night, went over in the corner to make it 25-24 and give West a chance to win the match. His kick never looked like missing.