Canterbury continue revival
Canterbury are back in business.
After starting the season 0-3, Canterbury thumped Southland
80-0 last weekend, but with all due respect to the southerners, it was yesterday’s match against Auckland which was to be the test of their resurgence.
They showed they have shrugged off those early-season struggles with a 32-22 win at Eden Park in Auckland.
The bonus-point victory moved them off the bottom of the Mitre 10 Cup Premiership standings, putting CountiesManukau into the relegation zone.
Canterbury shot out to a 10-0 lead inside five minutes after a Brett Cameron penalty and an intercept try from loose forward Billy Harmon.
Harmon turned villain in the
11th minute when he interfered with a halfback’s pass right on his own line and was sent to the sin bin.
Team-mates congratulate winger Dallas McLeod for scoring a try for Canterbury in Auckland yesterday.
Auckland probed away inside the Canterbury 22 for seven consecutive minutes until Akira Ioane forced the ball up against
the base of the posts.
The game stagnated for much of the rest of the first half until Canterbury right winger Dallas
McLeod crashed over as a simple one-off runner from the back of a five-metre scrum just as the halftime hooter sounded.
Harmon got his second try 10 minutes into the second half, toeing a loose lineout through the Auckland defence before scooping the ball up and diving over the line to extend his side’s lead to 15.
Auckland hit back in a major way with two tries in three minutes with 20 minutes to go.
First, captain Blake Gibson dotted down in the corner. Then, Salesi Rayasi capped a superb long-range team effort to score in the left corner. Harry Plummer converted one of those tries, so it was a three-point game with 17 minutes on the clock.
Canterbury wrestled back control of the game for the next 10 minutes, scoring a try to replacement halfback Ereatara Enari after he took a quick tap following his side being awarded a scrum penalty five metres from the Auckland line.
They closed out the win by dominating territory and possession for the rest of the match, never giving Auckland the chance to mount a late comeback.