Sports After Dark

The second round of the Air New Zealand Cup got under way as Tasman took on Manawatu at Landsdowne Park in Blenheim on Thursday night. In a game that was patchy at times, it was Tasman who came away with the win by 33-10.

In their first round outing, Tasman struggled at line out time, losing several against the throw but a rare appearance by All Black Chris Jack looked to have settled that down early on. Manawatu came into this game having never recorded a win in the Air New Zealand Cup, but with boosted confidence after a good showing against defending champions Waikato last week.

As the game got under way it became apparent that both teams had very different game plans, Tasman looking to shift the ball wide or kick for territory while Manawatu kept the ball among the forwards, trying to wear down their opponents. Initially Manawatu had the advantage but were unable to convert it into points after fly half Graham Smith missed an early shot at goal.

The scoring was opened in the 12th minute by the home side after a patient build up in the forwards, then shifting the ball wide to winger Alfred Pelenise who scored in the left hand corner. Tasman fly half Tim Taylor would land the sideline conversion to put Tasman up by 7-0.

The locals extended their lead via a Taylor penalty just five minutes later on the back of another patient attacking raid. Down 10-0, Manawatu would lift their intensity which led to an extended period of attack only to be thwarted by a number of Tasman infringements.

The parade of penalties continued and after another missed shot at goal referee Gary Wise issued a warning to the Tasman players, moments before Smith got his team on the board with a penalty goal.

Unfortunately this was not to be Smith’s night as he made a shocking error in the dying minutes of the first half, dropping the ball in his own in-goal area. The resulting scrum led to a penalty and Taylor slotted his second penalty goal of the night, sending his team into the break up 13-3.

Smith’s woes continued in the second half, conceding a penalty right from the kick-off for a high tackle and Taylor made the score 16-3. Things then went from bad to worse when prop Talau Hala deliberately killed the ball in a Tasman rolling maul and was shown a yellow card.

Taylor turned Hala’s indiscretion into three more points for the home side. Manawatu tried to open the game up in an attempt to compensate for playing one forward short, but just as their back line threatened they threw the ball straight to Taylor who beat two would-be tacklers and sent winger Blair Cook away down the right flank for his side’s second try.

As the hour mark approached both teams began to send replacements onto the field at regular intervals which generally robs the game of some structure, but tonight’s game continued to be a tightly contested forward battle. The advantage up front shifted regularly as neither side were able to build an attack of any substance.

Tasman would finally pay the price for their repeated infringing in their own half as replacement prop Tristran Moran was sent to the sin bin after just 10 minutes of the field for collapsing a maul. The visitors spent the next 10 minutes firmly on attack and finally crossed the line after a nice skip pass from Francisco Bosch to captain Hayden Triggs in the 76th minute. Replacement fly half Matty James added the extras, closing the gap to 26-10.

The home side hit back almost immediately, claiming a turnover, followed by some excellent support play which led to replacement James Foote scoring near the left hand touch line. He would then convert his own try to make the full time score 33-10.

Both teams lifted their game considerably from last week, but went off the boil too often to compete with the competition front runners. Taylor showed his class, controlling the flow of the game well and regularly catching full back Bosch out of position, as well as his excellent goal kicking.

These clashes between the second tier Air New Zealand Cup teams often produce excellent spectacles, such as tonight’s game, but they also show that the gulf between the haves and the have-nots is a very wide one indeed. Still the teams from the smaller centres frequently get better support than their big city cousins, and that is one of the draw-cards of this competition.

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The Taylor brilliant as Tasman down Manawatu by Hamish McBrearty, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.