Rugby: Auckland turn gaze on cup points

Auckland's Benson Stanley tackles Wellington's Alapati Leuia. Photo / Getty Images

Auckland will this week pick themselves up from the desolation of a one-point Ranfurly Shield defeat and set about the business of clambering up the national championship table.

A stirring second-half effort fell just short of wresting back the shield from Wellington, the team who dunked them 27-0 last year to grab the trophy.

However, the holders clung on 16-15 on the back of a better first half then tenacious defence in the final quarter, as Auckland gave them a serious shake in which they got full value out of substitutes Taniela Moa and Daniel Bowden, who sparked life into the backline, each scoring a fine try.

Refereeing howlers cost both teams.

Wellington have a near ironclad argument that they should have been further ahead than 8-3 at halftime after referee Chris Pollock ruled out a perfectly fair try by tidy first five-eighth Fa'atonu Fili.

Defensive untidiness enabled Fili to toe the ball ahead, follow up, gather and score just ahead of the valiant dive of Auckland flanker Dean Budd.

But, with no fourth pair of eyes in the stand to fall back on, Pollock was left to consult with his touch judges. With all three wearing tops tooting "Keep Your Eyes On The Action", they clearly hadn't and said they were unable to see it was a fair try.

When prop John Schwalger scored Wellington's second try five minutes after the restart, Auckland trailed by 10 points and it seemed as if it wouldn't matter. Auckland's lineout was hot and cold, and Wellington generally had an edge at the scrum.

Then there was a stirring in the Auckland ranks. Perhaps someone said something which struck a chord; possibly it was a collective awakening, but Auckland began to chance their arm. Impressive left wing Dave Thomas and fullback Isaia Toeava ran strongly, and the arrival of Bowden and Moa did the trick.

Bowden initiated and finished a smart move to close the gap, but Fili propped back to his right to coolly drop a goal to return the gap to eight points.

The last 10 minutes were all Auckland's. Moa sniped round the short side and Paul Williams did well to take two tackles and offload inside to Moa, who cut inside the last defender for a terrific try.

If Wellington felt hard done by on the Fili try, Auckland were grumpy when, eight minutes from time, Thomas' inpass to Toeava, with the line 2m away, was deflected by an intercepting Wellington hand. There was no scrum feed or penalty for a deliberate knockdown.

Moments later, replacement Hamish Paterson dived across from one metre, but Pollock ruled substitute prop Charlie Faumuina obstructed a potential tackler.

Technically that may have been so, but if Faumuina hadn't been there, Paterson would not have been stopped, given his size and momentum from that range. Common sense did not prevail. Auckland maintained Paterson had the ball down before the impact of Faumuina's position kicked in.

Still, it was a decent contest in which Wellington had - in Jeremy Thrush - the outstanding forward, and just enough to hold on.

Auckland coach Mark Anscombe talked last night of the players' pain in the dressing room. Yet he liked what he saw, believing the hurt won't hurt, so to speak.

"My concern was that in the past some guys have dismissed poor results quickly. I think they were hurting and some heads were down, but they've grown as a group, and we can take a lot of pluses from that game."

All Blacks Joe Rokocoko and John Afoa are back to face table-topping Bay of Plenty this week, but probably not flanker Jerome Kaino.

"We've got to start putting some wins on table," Anscombe said of the other aspect of the shield game. "We can't keep being close and having credible losses."