Southland 14
Counties-Manukau 6
Bay of Plenty 24
Tasman 13
After starting slowly, Southland took a comfortable 14-6 victory over Counties Manukau in their Air NZ Cup rugby match at Pukekohe last night.
Southland, who went into the match in second place on the table, were the heavy favourites over Counties Manukau, who are sitting near the bottom of the table .
The home-side put up a staunch fight, giving the vocal crowd at Growers Stadium plenty to cheer about before eventually being drowned defensively by the visitors.
After a suspected broken ankle took No 8 Viliami Fihaki from the field within the first 30 seconds of the match, Counties Manukau recovered quickly to put the first points on the board with a penalty from Tim Nanai-Williams in the ninth minute.
Seven minutes later, Nanai-Williams doubled the lead with a second penalty.
Having missed two penalties earlier in the game, Southland managed their first points with an unconverted try from Pehi Te Whare in the 28th minute, as the winger dragged Counties Manukau's Lelia Masaga over the try-line in the effort.
It looked as though Counties Manukau would have the lead going into the halftime break until, in the dying moments of the half, Southland's Robbie Robinson snatched a penalty to take his team to an 8-6 lead.
Two more penalties from Robinson early in the second half stretched Southland's lead to a comfortable 14-6.
A penalty pushed wide by Dean Cummins in the 70th minute cost Counties Manukau as they looked to get within seven points of Southland, and the game ended with no further points scored.
Speaking after the game, Southland captain James Kawau said he was pleased with his team's performance.
"Particularly in that last 10 minutes, I think Counties threw everything at us and we managed across the field," Kawau said.
"To be top of the table after eight weeks is something that I'm pretty proud of, it's just a matter of staying up there. Everyone's chasing pretty hard so we've got to make sure we keep winning."
Meanwhile, Bay of Plenty has moved up to second on the table after a 24-13 win over Tasman in Mount Maunganui. The Steamers ran in three tries to one, but needed to step it up after halftime after leading just 7-3 at the break.
Bay of Plenty captain Colin Bourke says his side enjoyed a far more productive second spell.
He says they were getting pinged too much individually in the first half so they changed to a far more team orientated approach and it worked well.
Third placed Canterbury defends the Ranfurly Shield tonight against Taranaki while Waikato is at home against Wellington in Hamilton.
Auckland hosts North Harbour in the battle of the bridge at Eden Park tomorrow afternoon and Hawke's Bay takes on Otago in Napier. The round finishes with Northland away to Manawatu in Palmerston North on Sunday.
- NZPA, NEWSTALK ZB
