In saying that, though, the tackling they displayed in the nascent stages would have seen them struggle even in the Championship. Time and again the Turbos were guilty of missing the most basic of tackles, allowing Canterbury to run rampant straight through the middle of their defence.
Scott Robertson's side needed no second invitation, enjoying quick and clean ball to illustrate the counter-attacking ability that helped them win their first three games, running in a trio of tries in the opening eight minutes.
Manawatu were struggling to merely get their hands on the ball, and in the rare instances when they did find possession they were guilty of giving it straight back through elementary errors.
The home side were also unable to venture outside of their own half with any regularity, and it took until the sixth time Canterbury crossed before they finally enjoyed a spell of possession inside the opposition 22, capitalising through a deserved try from Fraser Stone.
Perhaps there would have been more respectability to the scoreline had Semisi Masirewa's runaway effort early in the second spell not been called back. Instead, the red-and-black machine ran in another three tries to continue their march.
Manawatu 7 (Stone try; Black con)
Canterbury 57 (Suckling 2, Drummond, Thompson 3, Bird, Funnell, McNicholl tries; Taylor 6 cons)
HT: 7-38
