Wellington let lead slip away
Auckland are back atop the Mitre 10 Cup premiership standings.
It might have been an untidy and unconvincing performance but at least it was a winning one, as they beat 29-24 Wellington at Westpac Stadium last night. It took Auckland until the 71st minute to take the lead, but they won’t care.
For Wellington, there will be frustration at letting a 14-point lead slip late in the match. They stay fourth in the standings and now face a battle to keep North Harbour from securing the last semifinal spot.
The Lions had the better of the early going, without gaining much to show for it. A Galu Taufale try and two successful Jackson Garden-Bachop kicks gave them a 10-0 lead after 23 minutes, but it was still a few points short of what they should have had and what – you assumed – they might need to win.
They had enjoyed good passages of play near the Auckland line, only for option-taking or the last pass to let them down.
That was immediately brought home when centre Tumua Manu ran off a TJ Faiane short ball to get the visitors back to 10-7. It was soft from Wellington, who’d been on top, but it could have been worse.
Wing Salesi Rayasi was held up, after intercepting a GardenBachop pass near halfway, before No 8 Akira Ioane lost the ball in the act of scoring from a fivemetre scrum. Desperate Wellington defence was a contributing factor on both occasions, but the hosts were still to blame for gifting scoring opportunities in the first place.
All up it had been a pretty untidy opening 40 minutes. You couldn’t criticise either side’s effort, but accuracy and decisionmaking were issues.
Again, Wellington made the better start to a half when a lack of Auckland urgency enabled Lions second five-eighth Thomas Umaga-Jensen to outstrip the defence. Garden-Bachop converted to make it 17-7, but it’s what you do after scoring that’s almost as important as the original points themselves.
Not for the first time in the match, the Lions exited poorly and first five-eighth Harry Plummer was able to boot Auckland three points closer.
It wasn’t for long, as Auckland errors left Wellington wing Ben Lam with an easy stroll to the tryline. The conversion made it 24-10 with 25 minutes to play.
Typical of this game, though, a soft Wellington turnover gifted Faiane a try and 24-10 was almost immediately 24-17. The competition points were there for the taking provided one team had the discipline to hold the ball for a few minutes.
The result finally came down to the sinbinning of Wellington flanker Mateaki Kafatolu for a lifting tackle. Rayasi soon raced in for Auckland, before replacement Jordan Trainor did the same.
Wellington could have no complaints, given how little respect they’d shown for the football.
Auckland 29 (Tumua Manu, TJ Faiane, Salesi Rayasi, Jordan Trainor tries; Harry Plummer 2 con, pen) Wellington 24 (Galu Taufale, Thomas Umaga-Jensen, Ben Lam tries; Jackson GardenBachop 3 con, pen). HT: 7-10.