Rugby: Williams' magic elevates red and blacks to second place

Sonny Bill Williams. Photo / Getty Images

It will come as no surprise that the Canterbury Rugby Union's generosity stretches only so far.

Having thrown open the gates at AMI in Christchurch for Saturday's national provincial championship game, union officials were greeted by a crowd of 34,000 for the rematch of last year's final against Wellington.

Their players responded with the result the big crowd wanted, too, coming from behind for a sparkling bonus-point 37-30 win which bumped them from fourth to second place on the standings at the end of the ninth round.

They approach the business end of the competition on 31 points, tucked in behind leaders Southland, who improved to 34 after grinding out a tough 9-6 win over Auckland in their Ranfurly Shield defence in Invercargill on Thursday.

Southland's resolute and unbending defence yet again held the key to their continued charge towards the semifinals as Auckland were repeatedly turned away in bitingly cold, wet conditions.

The scoreline from the southern venue was something of an aberration as the remaining six matches in the round produced no fewer than 46 tries and 381 points.

Canterbury leapfrogged Auckland and Taranaki into second place after Taranaki suffered an unexpected setback on Saturday in Napier, where Hawkes Bay stirred to life after a lacklustre campaign to register a 32-24 win, just their second of the season.

The two bonus points pocketed by Wellington were enough to see them hold on to fifth place on 27 points, one ahead of Waikato and Bay of Plenty, with early pacesetters Counties-Manukau still in the reckoning after a rousing 40-24 win over Northland yesterday promoted them to eighth place on 25 points.

The Canterbury union's gesture of free entry, three weeks after the southern city was rocked by a 7.1-magnitude earthquake, proved popular with the crowd, who also delighted in their team's fightback after they trailed 13-20 at halftime when Wellington's stand-in captain, Hosea Gear, scored two tries to spur his side ahead.

Coming off a loss to Taranaki the previous week, Canterbury continued to make uncharacteristic errors but glossed over those shortcomings with a compelling display on attack which rewarded them with four tries.

The last of them went to star off-season signing Sonny Bill Williams after the second five-eighths was injected into the match at halftime. Williams pierced Wellington's defence in the 68th minute before contemptuously brushing off Lima Sopoaga and John Schwalger en route to the tryline.

A further eight tries were served up in Napier where Hawkes Bay, stung by criticism after a series of inadequate performances, started with all the momentum of a runaway freight train to streak out to a 25-0 lead in as many minutes.

Taranaki were left stunned as Jason Shoemark, Ryan McLeod and Hika Elliot crossed for tries and the visitors' cause was not helped bythe early sinbinning of prop Michael Bent.

It took all of half an hour before Taranaki regained their poise, but it was not until the final quarter, when they trailed 7-32, that they hit their stride as three late tries to Kane Barrett, Kurt Baker and Jayden Hayward lent some respectability to the scoreline.

First five-eighths Stephen Donald was an influential figure as Waikato saw off Tasman 33-15 in Hamilton on Saturday night, setting up the second of their three tries and landing a perfect seven-from-seven goalkicks for a personal haul of 18 points.

Donald controlled play well as he continued his comeback from injury, guiding his Waikato team expertly as they recorded their sixth win to remain very much in playoffs contention.

Bay of Plenty, too, stay in the equation after scoring five tries to beat Otago 40-30 at Rotorua, while Counties-Manukau appreciated being on home turf at Pukekohe as they rattled on four tries in a 15-minute burst in the first half.

That gave them a 27-7 advantage by the main break before Northland struck back with two early tries after the resumption to get back into the contest.

The Counties-Manukau defence held firm thereafter, though, for an important win as the top seven-bottom seven jockeying for positions intensifies.

- NZPA