Considering their injury woes it was a memorable Magpies win with similar intensity to the 20-19 September 1 Ranfurly Shield win against the Razorbacks at the same venue. Second five-eighth Andrew Horrell withdrew from the semifinal yesterday after failing a fitness test on his leg injury.
"Andrew made good gains during the first half of last week but didn't during the last couple of days. Sometimes players with his type of injury are out for four to six weeks," Philpott explained.
Coman was forced from the field with a knee injury in the 16th minute. With these concerns, Philpott said he will be unlikely to confirm his side for Nelson until Thursday.
While the loosies were the heroes of the previous week's win against Wellington, yesterday it was the turn of Magpies locks Michael Allardice and Mark Abbott to steal the limelight. With superb lineout work, outstanding mobility in the loose and a huge defensive workrate Allardice pipped flanker Brendon O'Connor, centre Richard Buckman and first five-eighth Ihaia West for the player-of-the-match award.
Abbott rolled his ankle in the 23rd minute but battled on in admirable fashion. O'Connor was again tireless in the loose.
Buckman and West were again the pick of the backs. Buckman's 58th minute try followed a kick which he made for outstanding substitute loosie Trent Boswell-Wakefield to run to, collect and pass to Buckman in the tackle after a powerful burst.
Halfback Alby Mathewson scored the visitors first try in the 32nd minute after a clever solo dab from a five metre scrum.
West relished the perfect conditions for goalkicking in the indoor stadium to slot all seven of his attempts at goal for a 19 point haul.
Now the scene is set for the Magpies to send long-serving loosie Karl Lowe off to Japan with a winning 100th first class outing for the Bay on Friday night.
If Lowey's 100th isn't sufficient motivation for the Magpies to beat Tasman and gain promotion back to the Premiership what is?
For the second time in seven weeks Razorbacks captain and No8 Paul Grant was left to apologise to Otago fans after another successful Magpies visit to Dunedin.
"We made a few mistakes and Hawke's Bay kept at it and scored some good tries. Bugger it and sorry we could not do it," Grant told the 7900 fans.
Otago deserve praise for their never-say-die approach and for giving the Magpies the type of game they need before taking on a classy outfit like the Tasman Makos. Hawke's Bay age group product and Razorbacks blindside flanker Gareth Evans was among the hosts' best.
Evans forced several turnovers with his ability to hold Magpies players up in the tackle and sparked Otago's comeback with a cracker of a try in the 64th minute. Fellow loosie TJ Ioane again provided tremendous impact off the bench.
Otago halfback Fumiaki Tanaka was again classy. His first first five-eighth Hayden Parker, like West, had a 100 per cent success rate at goal and did well to extinguish the chance of a Magpies try just before halftime.
