Taranaki 38
Otago 10
Taranaki were obviously smarting from their last-minute loss to Waikato last weekend.
They played like a side that really didn't want to lose again and owed their win to some scrambling defence, courage at the collision and a wham-bam two-try hit early in the second half.
They also did it
after a difficult week, when five players were stood down after breaking the team's drinking protocols following the game against Waikato.
In this form, no one will be all that keen about the trip to New Plymouth. There was a bit of everything in their performance last night. There was some starch in the forwards and more than a little enterprise from the backs, who came into their own in the second half.
Taranaki had to be brave and enterprising at the breakdown because their lineout was a bit of a shambles. Not a shambles on the same scale as the All Black lineout - but Tom Donnelly, Hayden Triggs and Adam Thomson were able to get in among things and cause plenty of disruption. That made life hard for the home side as it killed much of their momentum when they were threatening to build something.
And that was frequently as Willia Ripia gave them direction and territory from No 10 and Jayden Hayward gave them an attacking thrust that Otago couldn't quite handle.
Taranaki also had the most unlikely finishing power of Tony Penn, who helped himself to two tries - the second of which came from a set move that was classy and effective. An inside pass sent Jack Cameron charging down the guts before Penn popped up in support and managed to cover 20m to force the ball down.
That was the killer blow. Taranaki had taken a 27-10 lead on 53 minutes when Penn had bashed over from close range for his first try. That score came just two minutes after Triggs spilled the ball close to the Taranaki line leading to a beautifully-worked break-out where Paul Perez had the legs to outstrip the defence.
It was almost game over at that point but Otago couldn't be dismissed.
Their lineout, for one, was capable of keeping them in the game and any team with Thomson in it has the ability to score from long range or seemingly hopeless positions.
There was also a nice rhythm to the work of unheralded first five Glenn Dickson, who should wash up somewhere when the Super 14 selection process begins in earnest.
As much as Otago gave, however, there was no give in the Taranaki defensive line. There was no easy space given away and if Otago were a split second late in getting numbers to the ball on the ground, they lost it.
There was no better example of that than the supremely good steal pulled off by Jason Eaton in the final quarter. Dickson slipped before reaching contact and Eaton, in an extraordinarily good position for a big man, sealed off the ball, got his hands on it and affected the steal expertly.
It was one of those vital executions that will have gone a long way to convincing the All Black selectors that he does indeed have a future as a blindside flanker.
Otago deserve praise for the way they stuck at it even as the clock ticked down and the scoreboard didn't budge. When Michael Witt came on late in the piece, he tried every trick in his book but it wasn't enough, especially when the excellent Ripia would punish all their hard work with a well-aimed hoof into the darkest corners of the ground.
All Taranaki's hard work was properly rewarded on 75 minutes when Nemia Soqeta blasted down the left flank from an attacking scrum to claim the bonus point.
