Canterbury surge in second half to clip brave Counties

CANTERBURY came back from being down 21-10 at halftime to defeat Counties Manukau 36-31 in the Farah Palmer Cup at Navigation Homes Stadium yesterday.

The top-of-the-table Canterbury side were outplayed over the first half, making mistakes and not treasuring the ball enough.

However, they were more clinical over the second period, while Counties looked to run out of gas as Canterbury won the second half 26-10.

In other matches yesterday, Auckland beat Manawatu 32-5, Waikato edged Bay of Plenty

17-10, and Hawke’s Bay downed Northland 32-17.

Canterbury’s loose forwards were impressive at the breakdown, while their more mobile tight-five gradually got on top against Counties.

But it didn’t start that way. In the 14th minute Counties were awarded a penalty try when lock Stacey Niao tapped out of play a chip kick from Ruby Tui that went in-goal, something that not only cost Canterbury seven points, but Niao was also sent to the bin.

Canterbury struck back quickly, with centre Amy Du Plessis hitting a gap in the defence near the halfway line, and she ran all the way home untouched to score.

In the 25th minute Counties scored again. The initial hard work was done by Leilani Perese, Joanna Fanene Lolo and the other forwards, crashing the ball up on the right, the ball was then spun to the other flank and Hazel Tubic, celebrating her 50th game for the province, squirmed out of a tackle to score.

Just before the change of ends Tubic put up a wonderful cross field kick to Tui, who caught it at pace and ran in for Counties’ third try.

Canterbury were on fire for the start of the second half, with Lucy Jenkins and Grace Steinmetz both scoring tries. Langi Veainu, who replaced Tui at halftime, intercepted a pass on the Canterbury 22m line to run in for a try to put Counties back in front, but the lead didn’t last with wing Martha Mataele crossing and Rosie Kelly scoring Canterbury’s sixth try with 12 minutes to go, giving her team some breathing space.