ITM Cup round-two recap
The second round of the ITM Cup was full of surprises. The first day saw Canterbury just squeak by with another subpar performance, while Wellington and Auckland struggled against tough opponents.
Canterbury 27 Manawatu 26
Manawatu opened the scoring in the fifth minute with a try from Lote Raikabula, to give the home team a 7-0 lead early.
Canterbury would not be outdone, as Sean Maitland notched a try for the visitors in the 12th minute, however the conversion went wide and Manawatu held the lead.
Colin Slade made up for his missed conversion by slotting home a penalty for Canterbury. However, Manawatu stormed back with another try from Raikabula, to hold a 12-8 lead.
The home side would cross the whitewash once more to take a 19-8 lead into half.
Manawatu continued to dominate early in the second half, as Casey Stone crossed the line to push the lead out to 26-8.
Canterbury took over the game from that point, scoring four straight tries, two of which coming from Robert Fruean. The late surge sealed a come-from-behind victory for the visitors.
Taranaki 33 Tasman 11
After 24 minutes Taranaki held a 14-6 lead, after tries from Kurt Baker and Tyson Keats. It was only three minutes later when they were able to add their third try of the day courtesy of Jarrad Hoeata.
Taranaki continued to control the second half scoring two more tries from David Smith, and George Pisi.
Tasman was only able to dot down for their first try of the day with 10 minutes to go in the contest. Nevertheless, it was far too late as Taranaki cruised to victory.
Bay of Plenty 30 Hawke’s Bay 11
Bay of Plenty was able to dot down two tries in the first 24 minutes, with the second coming from Taneila Moa. Andrew Horrell tried to keep pace for Hawke’s Bay, managing two penalties in the first 36 minutes.
Nevertheless, Plenty pulled away with a try from Lelia Masaga early in the second half.
The game never seemed in doubt as Plenty managed to put down three more tries before the end of the match the last coming from Chad Tuora, who put the game well out of reach for Hawke’s Bay.
Waikato 21 Auckland 18
The two sides were evenly matched through the first half, with both teams scoring tries, and entering the break locked-up at 13.
It looked as though Auckland had done enough to win late when Peter Saili crossed the line for the home side. However, Waikato worked hard in the final portion of the match and Dwayne Sweeney crossed the whitewash for the underdogs to take a stunning victory in the rain at Eden Park.
Southland 16 Otago 12
Otago looked strong early as the game was dominated by penalties. Otago managed to take a 9-6 lead into halftime before Southland began to push.
Otago was bothered by a lack of discipline, which saw the squad sin-binned consistently throughout the contest. Eventually a Jamie Macintosh try proved too much for the underdogs, and Southland waited out a victory to take the Invercargill derby.
Counties Manukau 31 Wellington 25
Counties came ready to play, taking it to an unsuspecting Wellington side, who let the underdogs run all over them, and build up a 23-3 lead at halftime.
In the second half Wellington seemed to get it together as they came out scoring, nevertheless Counties had built up to much of a lead, and the incredible play of number 12 Reynold Lee-lo proved to be too much for the home side.
Counties completed their second upset in as many weeks, defeating Wellington in the New Zealand capital 31-25.
North Harbour 25 Northland 24
Northland looked to be on their way to sure victory as they held a 21-6 lead in the 33rd minute in Whangarei. However, North Harbour was able to battle back to tie the game late.
Substitute Ben Botica got to play the hero, when he scored a dropped goal in the 83rd minute for an exciting comeback win.
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