Taranaki: Hold onto Log o' Wood
Taranaki beat Hawke's Bay 22-6 in wet and windy conditions to retain the Ranfurly Shield for a second successive week.
The teams were scoreless at half-time in New Plymouth, but Taranaki turned it on after the break as the hosts outscored their visitors three tries to nill with Kurt Baker, Jayden Hayward and Scott Waldrom all touching down.
Hawke's Bay fly-half Daniel Waenga could only manage six points from the tee, but it could have been more had he not missed three of his five penalty attempts.
In contrast, Taranaki's replacement pivot Jack Cameron was flawless with the boot thanks to his two conversions and a penalty after replacing James Marshall with just over 20 minutes to go.
The win stretches the Amber and Blacks' Ranfurly Shield reign to five matches, whilst at the same time bagging another four ITM Cup points - three games, three wins, 14 competition points.
The scorers:
For Taranaki:
Tries: Baker, Hayward, Waldrom
Cons: Cameron 2
Pen: Cameron
For Hawke's Bay:
Pens: Waenga 2
Taranaki: 15 Kurt Baker, 14 Waisake Naholo, 13 Willie Rickards, 12 Jayden Hayward, 11 Jackson Ormond, 10 James Marshall, 9 Chris Smylie, 8 Blade Thomson, 7 Scott Waldrom, 6 Kane Barrett, 5 Jason Eaton, 4 Craig Clarke (c), 3 Michael Bent, 2 Laurence Corlett, 1 Chris King.
Replacements: 16 Timo Tutavaha, 17 Sione Lea, 18 James Broadhurst, 19 Jarrad Hoeata, 20 Chris Walker, 21 Brett Goodin, 22 Jack Cameron.
Hawke's Bay: 15 Gillies Kaka, 14 Tino Nemani, 13 Tua Saseve, 12 Andrew Horrell, 11 Nick McLennan, 10 Daniel Waenga, 9 Chris Eaton, 8 Mike Coman (c), 7 Karl Lowe, 6 Adam Bradey, 5 Johan Schoonbee, 4 Ross Kennedy, 3 Ben Tameifuna, 2 Hika Elliot, 1 Adrian Barone.
Replacements: 16 Ash Dixon, 17 Brendon Edmonds, 18 Maselino Paulino, 19 Trent Boswell-Wakefield, 20 Isaac Paewai, 21 Ihaia West, 22 Marvin Karawana.
Comments
Ferdie says...
what a change from last week when we saw 89 points scored - been a while since I've seen 0-0 at halftime
for the people who slammed taranaki for their loose play last week, tonight showed thay can handle the weather conditions and play a slower paced/tight game. thought smylie and clarke ok both in their first itm game of the season, hoeta strong at 6 when he came on, both he and eaton are half-loose forward anyway, again the 'lack of locking depth' stuff what rubbish, hoeta played three tests at lock last year and eaton (17 caps, last in 2009) after a good hurricanes season is at 30 in the best form ever
cameron the third-ranked flyhalf played well too i thought the loss of barrett would have had too much of an impact
sadly think that is the end of the ranfurly shield though with canterbury next week, hope i am wrong but expect they are too strong.
Posted 13:55 07th September 2012
passtheball says...
Three of the most underrated players in NZ rugby scored for the Naki. While the Chiefs did very well I cant understand how Scott Waldrom got so little game time. Same thing happened when Foster was coach the yer before. Then due to injuries Waldrom finally got his chance and became the form 7 of the S15 IMO.
Posted 12:47 07th September 2012