Taradale salutes as Iakopo Mapu scores the winning try as the maroons inflict Napier Tech Old Boys' first loss of the season at Whitmore Park, Napier, on Saturday. Photo / Paul Taylor
Taradale salutes as Iakopo Mapu scores the winning try as the maroons inflict Napier Tech Old Boys' first loss of the season at Whitmore Park, Napier, on Saturday. Photo / Paul Taylor
Taradale’s hopes of a third Ray White Maddison Trophy Hawke’s Bay Premier rugby championship in a row soared with a 22-17 win over first-round Nash Cup winners Napier Tech Old Boys on a chilly and grey afternoon at Whitmore Park, Napier.
On a Saturday on which home teams were beatenin all five Maddison Trophy and Hepa Paewai Memorial Trophy, Taradale scored three tries to two, prolific tryscoring loose forward Iakopo Mapu scoring what became the match-winning third five-pointer after coming off the bench with the score locked at 17-17 inside the last 10 minutes.
Inflicting Tech’s first loss in 13 matches, Taradale - Maddison Trophy winners nine times and playoffs qualifiers 26 times in the 35 years since the competition went Hawke’s Bay-wide in 1988 - moved into the lead, with three of this year’s five weekends of championship rugby out of the way and just two remaining before the semifinals.
Tech, with a draw, a win by just two points and now a loss in the three games since winning all 10 Nash Cup games for a second year in a row, slipped into third place with Central keeping their 2023 unbeaten record intact with a 30-20 win over Napier Old Boys Marist at Tremain Field, Park Island, and all but guaranteeing the Waipukurau club a semifinal, 16 years after their only previous Maddison Trophy top-four chance in 2007.
It also left Napier Old Boys Marist just clinging on to a top-four hope, on a points differential basis but in a battle for the fourth playoff position with twin cities rival Hastings Rugby and Sports, who all but ended MAC’s hopes with a 38-19 win at Flaxmere Park.
As much as in the results, the tightening of the race to McLean Park is exposed in next weekend’s draw, in which Taradale have a home match against MAC, Tech are at home again, against Napier Old Boys Marist, and Central travel north again to play Hastings R&S in Hastings.
In Saturday’s Hepa Paewai Memorial Trophy matches, Havelock North beat Clive 34-16 at Clive and Napier Pirate survived the trip to Dannevirke with a 37-10 win over Aotea.
The Taradale win was a big one for first-season coach and former trophy-lifting captain Namatahi Waa, who put the triumph down to continually building strength heading towards the playoffs, the strength of the subs’ bench in the modern game of 23-man rugby, and the obliging wind that died in the second half.
Taradale loose forward Iakopo Mapu's lunge for the match-winning try. Photo / Paul Taylor
Ahead 10-3 at halftime, Taradale spent long periods in Tech territory, but when the wind did its momentary blasts, so too did Tech, relieved from some punishing defence work at one end to score two tries at the other.
The first made it 10-10, and the second levelled it again at 17-17, with midfield back Falealii Popoalii’s 14th try of the season, before Mapu came to the party and scored his try.
Waa, who reckoned he only made it to the head coach berth after completing the required Level 1 coaching course a week before the start of the season in March, said the performances of flanker Thomas Eden and lock Andrew Gardner throughout were big parts of the outcome, as was the second-half introduction from the bench of Mapu and props Wiremu Cottrell and Jayden Walker.
Tech also had a strong bench, but it didn’t fire to the same degree and with the tough defence going on close to the line, it was the clearing kicks of Sheridan Rangihuna which repeatedly got Tech out of jail.
Central’s win was a biggie for coach Sam McNicol, also in his first season of Premier coaching and now part of the Magpies coaching team for the Bunnings NPC.
Central were in front from the time they scored the first try of the match, finishing with four tries and denying Marist a bonus point for getting within seven points when first five-eighths Jordan Soli kicked his second penalty near fulltime, part of a contribution of 10 points which takes him to 132 points in his first season out of high school.
In their win, Hastings R& S scored six tries, including two to Oscar Sowman, on the left wing.
Central 30 (Trei Nepe-Apatu, Siosiua Kaifa, Sam Cavanagh, Jeri Kavekai tries; Jordan Soli 2 penalties, 2 conversions) Napier Old Boys Marist 20 (Duff Penitito, Jonty Stewart tries; Bain Champion 2 penalties, conversion; Jonty Stewart conversion).
Hastings Rugby and Sport 38 (Oscar Sowman 2, Vikta Tevita, Danya Tulou, Neria Fomai, Ausage Fomai tries; Danny Toala 4 conversions) MAC 19 (Johnny Ika 2, Fa’alemiga Selesele tries; Joshua Coward 2 conversions)
Points: Taradale 14, Central 12, Napier Tech OB 9, Hastings R&S 7, Napier OBM 7, MAC 2.
Division 1 - Hepa Paewai Memorial Trophy
Havelock North 34 (Samuel Smith, Oliver Tomalin, Alex Philip, Teihana Brown, Epeli Tanadroga tries; Tawhiri Gifford-Kara penalty, 3 conversions) Clive 16 (penalty try; Jayden Falcon 3 penalties).
Division 2 - Tom Mulligan Cup: Napier Old Boys Marist 33 Bridge Pa 24, Napier Tech OB 38 Hastings R&S 19, Porangahau 7 Napier Pirate 5, Waipawa Country United 9 Ōtāne 8.
Division 2A - Taradale 24 MAC 22, Takapau 27 Havelock North 15, Central 32 Eskview 10.
Division 3 - Ron Parker Memorial Trophy: Taradale 22 Maraenui 15, Clive 6 Napier Pirate 0.
