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Canterbury halfback Cocksedge sets record on the back of tense win

KENDRA Cocksedge has made history by becoming the first player to reach 1000 points in New Zealand women’s domestic rugby.

She needed only 11 minutes to bag the 12 points she required to reach the mark in Canterbury’s 24-17 win against Waikato in Hamilton yesterday.

Halfback Cocksedge, who debuted for Canterbury in 2007 as a 19-year-old, scored two converted tries to put her name in the record books, as the visitors surged to an early 14-0 lead in a rematch of last year’s final.

Cocksedge’s 19-point haul ensured she finished the match with 1007 career points to her name, with a large chunk of them coming via 65 tries.

Reigning champions Canterbury never trailed at Beetham Park, but certainly didn’t have it all their way after blowing out to an early double-digit lead.

Knifed open twice by slick moves for Cocksedge to finish off, Waikato got back into at the breakdown. They pilfered a mountain of ball, earned numerous penalties and disrupted Canterbury’s game plan they use to run teams off their feet.

Teenage wing Gabby Wainohu led the charge for the hosts on debut, causing Canterbury all sorts of problems with her running game. Waikato hooker Grace Houpapa-Barrett dived over on the back of a lineout drive in the 22nd minute to get her side on the board, before prop Tanya Kalounivale scored via a pick-andgo after the halftime hooter, justifying captain Chelsea Alley’s decision to turn down a shot at goal as the hosts grew in confidence.

However, the momentum they finished the first half with was quickly extinguished, as Canterbury struck just 44 seconds after the match resumed.

Cocksedge hoofed over a penalty to give them breathing

space (24-12), which they needed following a yellow card to Black Ferns lock Chelsea Bremner.

Elsewhere, Krystal Murray scored 14 points as Northland stormed back from a 15-26 halftime deficit to beat Hawke’s Bay 46-31 in Napier, while North Harbour edged a fast-finishing Tasman

35-32 in their home-opener. Manawatu¯ delmolished Taranaki 48-5 in Palmerston North.

SPORT

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2021-07-25T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-07-25T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://fairfaxmedia.pressreader.com/article/281968905714112

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