The Hawke’s Bay Tui are poised for a critical moment in the hunt for a second consecutive Farah Palmer Cup national women’s rugby championship semifinal in a home-ground Battle of the Bays match in Hastings on Saturday.
The match against Bay of Plenty comes with the Tui place third in the seven-team premiership, with seven competition points after just two matches, comprising two bonus points for scoring four tries or more and getting within seven points when beaten 36-32 by Counties Manukau at McLean Park, Napier, on August 17, and five from beating Northland Kauri 43-20 and again scoring four tries or more at the park on Friday night.
The Tui scored eight tries to four, the first to halfback Kahlia Awa, which with a conversion to first five-eighths and captain Krysten Cottrell made it 7-0 after eight minutes, but, ahead 12-10 at halftime the Tui were down 20-17 with 16 minutes gone in the second half.
No 8 Jaimee Robin scored a try in each half, and Cottrell landed four conversions, but there were no successes with the boot for the Northland goalkickers.
Tui coach Sione Cherrington-Kite conceded some frustration with the ascendancy not being gained earlier, and the Tui not getting the “fast starts” he hopes for, but with only minimal injury issues he’s looking forward to further improvement on Saturday, when he also hopes there will be good support at the Mitre 10 Hawke’s Bay Regional Sports Park.
“They like playing at the sports park,” he said and asked about the need to lock the BoP Volcanix away as part of the plan to get at least to the semifinals, he said: “We haven’t sat down and targeted anyone, it’s all about getting to where we want to be.”
The Volcanix, who the Tui beat 35-28 in Whakatane last year, are also on seven points but have had two losses in three games.
Only Counties Manukau (three games) and defending champions Auckland Storm (two games) are unbeaten, the latter having beaten Canterbury 43-37 in Christchurch, effectively a rematch of last year’s final.
The Tui’s other games in the bid to make the top four for the semifinals are against Waikato in Hamilton on September 8, Canterbury in Christchurch on September 14, and Auckland, as a curtain-raiser to a Bunnings Warehouse NPC men’s match between Auckland and Southland at Eden Park on September 22.
Meanwhile, Hawke’s Bay Māori representative side Te Matau a Māui’s hopes of winning challenge trophy, the Tirikatene Shield, this year ended when they were beaten 12-7 by Wellington side Te Upoko o Te Ika in Upper Hutt Friday.
Wellington led 5-0 at halftime and the Bay took the lead early in the second half with a try to lock Donovan Mataira, converted by first five-eighths Jayden Falcon.
The loss was the only defeat in a six-match season for Te Matau a Māui, coming on the first day of the Te Upoko o Te Ika Invitation Tournament in Upper Hutt, where the Bay side ended its season with a 60-19 win over Poverty Bay side Turanganui a Kiwa.
Canterbury representatives Waitaha beat Te Upoko o Te Ika 22-19 in the final on Saturday, claiming both the tournament’s cup and the challenge shield.
In another Hawke’s Bay representative match, Hawke’s Bay Under 19 beat the Hurricanes Heartland Under 19 team 75-14 in Napier.