Auckland down Bay of Plenty by 25-16 after close contest at Eden Park - Rugby News
Auckland outclassed the visiting Bay of Plenty by 25-16 after a tight competition in Eden Park on August 20th at Eden Park.
The Auckland side was motivated to make the match special for Joe Rokocoko who was playing his last home game at Eden Park as he his heading towards a French club next near. The winners scored three tries to thump BoP in front of their home crowd. Gareth
Anscombe was again impressive for Auckland with his well directed kicks and he scored 10 individual points for his side at some crucial moments in the match.
Auckland pushed the Bay players on to the back foot with early aggression as they scored the first try of the match within 10 minutes of play. Hadleigh Parkes scored the first try for his team while Anscombe increased the lead to 7-0 on a conversion kick.
Chris Noakes opened the account for Bay of Plenty with a three pointer and reduced the Auckland’s lead to 3-7.
Bay of Plenty managed well to bounce back in the match despite the ball possession equation favouring Auckland. Luke Braid scored the only try for Bay of Plenty just before the break and helped his side to take a lead over Auckland for the first and last
time in the match.
Bay was in a good position to win the match as they were little ahead of Auckland after the end of first half with 13-10. However, they could not create good breakthrough during the second half and handed over the match to Auckland.
Chris Noakes helped his side with crucial points to grab another victory in the tournament.
Teams:
Auckland: 15 Dave Thomas, 14 Joe Rokocoko, 13 Hadleigh Parkes, 12 Winston Stanley, 11 George Moala, 10 Gareth Anscombe, 9 Alby Mathewson, 8 Peter Saili, 7 Sean Polwart , 6 Nathan Hughes, 5Chris Lowrey, 4 Liaki Moli, 3 Charlie Faumuina, 2
Tom McCartney (c), 1 Pauliasi Manu.
Replacements: 16 Ash Dixon, 17 Angus Ta'avao, 18 Steve Luatua, 19 Sam Henwood, 20 Toby Morland, 21 Piers Francis, 22 Brent Ward, 23 Tevita Mailau.
Bay of Plenty: 15 Toby Arnold, 14 Lelia Masaga, 13 Phil Burleigh, 12 Steve Kefu/Hona, 11 Jason Hona/Ben W Smith, 10 Chris Noakes, 9 Jamie Nutbrown, 8 Colin Bourke (c), 7 Luke Braid,6 Tanerau Latimer, 5 Culum Retallick/Luke Andrews, 4 Leon
Power, 3 Bronson Murray, 2 John Pareanga, 1 Tristan Moran.
Replacements: 16 Daniel Perrin, 17 Greg Pleasants-Tate, 18 Andrews/Leighton Price, 19 Sam Cane, 20 Josh Hall, 21 Daniel Waenga/Nick McCashin, 22 Smith/Lance MacDonald, 23. Josh Hohneck.
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