Wellington 45 Southland 3
KEY POINTS:
Wellington cruised into the semifinals of the national championship with a convincing win over a bumbling Southland at a windswept Cake Tin last night.
It was one of those Wellington nights when the posts lurched dramatically in the gale, litter swirled upwards in mini tornadoes and fullbacks ran
in circles under high kicks without ever looking like catching them.
All but five of Wellington's 27 first half points could be attributed to Southland bumbling and the unerring boot of Jimmy Gopperth.
After Gopperth had opened the scoring from a close range penalty, a Southland midfield fumble presented a try on a platter for Ma'a Nonu.
Southland's lone area of dominance was the scrum and the never ending stream of handling errors meant they weren't short of opportunities to exert their superiority.
All that came of it in the first half was a solitary Blair Stewart penalty.
Wellington made hard work of what should have been a simple chore before fullback Cory Jane produced a rare piece of skill in a dreary contest, beating his opposite number James Wilson with a neat outside swerve after Nonu had delivered a perfect skip pass.
Trailing by just 14 with two minutes remaining in the half - and about to turn with the gale at their backs - Southland were in the game.
But two minutes was all they needed to change that, gifting Gopperth a simple penalty goal through yet another dropped ball, then aimlessly chipping the ball back to Wellington from the restart, allowing replacement flanker Tom Harding to cross in the corner.
If it had been a boxing match Southland would have been told not to bother getting off their stools at halftime.
Sadly it wasn't - and they did.
If the first half was a festival of handling errors, the second half was Woodstock, Glastonbury and the Edinburgh Comedy Fest rolled into one.
It was hard to get a decent read on Wellington, who weren't forced to rise to any great heights to book a likely trip to Christchurch for a semifinal against Canterbury next weekend.
But unless they were dragged down to the level of their opposition, their season will likely end sooner rather than later.
No one tried harder than Jane to at least produce a second-half passage of play worthy of a mention, but twice his mazy runs from the back came to nought as Wellington's support play was found wanting.
The third time proved a charm, however, with Jane going to ground deep inside Southland territory and young reserve hooker Dane Coles following up with a sublime round-the-corner pass to send over Thomas Waldrom.
That try proved the tipping point as Southland's defence crumbled, allowing lock Jeremy Thrush and Shannon Paku to pile on the misery.
Wellington 45 (M. Nonu, C. Jane, T. harding, T. Waldrom, J. Thrush, S. Paku tries; J. Gopperth 3 pen, 3 con)
Southland 3 (B. Stewart pen)
Halftime: 27-3