Ironically, it was a former local club player in reserve halfback Fa’alele Iosua, who also came off the bench for Whanganui in the 2017 Ranfurly Shield game against Canterbury, taking over the tee from South Canterbury skipper Willie Wright and slotting the 30m dagger from adjacent to the posts.
The visitors do not yet seem to be missing their former first five Sam Briggs, one of the architects of their Meads Cup three-peat, with veteran Miles Medicott wearing the No 10 jersey and Wright dictating the direction.
Really, rather than tactical kicking, the key was just letting loose the power in their outside backs, fullback Liueli Simote scoring the first try of his double inside the opening three minutes as Whanganui dropped off too many tackles in the opening exchanges.
Flanker Salesi Tangi Savelio was also a handful with every dash – handling three times in one movement, including the decisive dash for the try to start South Canterbury’s second-half revival and cut Whanganui’s lead to 33-27.
For the home side, who had to rejig their forwards after lock Peter Travis Hay-Horton’s recurring shoulder injury saw him ruled out, so many deserved better after coming back repeatedly at the defending champions and getting their noses in front.
Player-of-the-day prop Kamipeli Latu went 75 minutes against the big Cantabrian front row, which included former All Black Hika Elliot coming on in the final quarter, and Latu took carry after carry to the gain line.
Whanganui coach Jason Hamlin left a raft of changes until quite late as he hoped fresh bodies would stop South Canterbury inside the last five minutes, but it was other tired players who made the errors.
Centre Alekesio Vakarorogo busted through the midfield several times, including setting up the second try of winger Peceli Malanicagi, as well as birthday boy halfback Griffin Culver’s try and the breakout which led to the penalty for second five Ethan Robinson to seemingly make Whanganui safe with the clock ticking down.
After missing his opening two kicks, Robinson slotted five of his next six as part of a 16-point haul, while the former Manawatū rep Culver’s distribution from the scrum and rucks in his Heartland debut was crisp and accurate.
So much ended up relying on flanker Josefa Namosimalua’s athletic efforts on the kick restarts, either chasing or receiving, because when he secured them, Whanganui prospered – and when he couldn’t, they were under pressure.
The loss stung hard-working new captain Jamie Hughes – to have all but snapped the streak, which now includes four straight Whanganui losses going back to 2021.
“The boys played better than we have been playing, today, and we come up against a top squad, and it showed,” Hughes said.
“We’ll keep building and hopefully be a bit better next week.”
Hamlin was likewise gutted, knowing how valuable five competition points as opposed to two would have been after getting past the toughest side in the competition.
“We had them beaten two or three times, but we dropped the ball – with a couple of minutes to go, we should have been playing at the other end.
“A couple of those lineout [drives] and we’re still talking to the referees around what constitutes a stop, because in our minds a couple of them we stopped, but then they regenerated.
“The positive for us is it’s probably all controllable stuff from our point of view, stuff that we can control if we get that part right and limit opportunities for the other sides.
“We’ll be talking to the group around making sure nobody outworks us, and I don’t think anyone outworked us today [but] we probably didn’t play as smart as I would of liked us to in some instances.”
South Canterbury 37 (L. Simote 2, P. Matakaiongo, S. Tangi-Savelio, Z. Saunders tries; W. Wright pen, 3 con, F. Iosua pen) bt Whanganui 36 (P. Malanicagi 2, E. Robinson, T. Rogers-Holden, G. Culver tries; Robinson pen, 4 con). HT: 22-19.
Year 7-8
The last WRFU club championship for the 2024 season was decided on Saturday in the Year 7-8 final at the Kaierau Country Club, as the Marist Chiefs came from behind to defeat Columbus Kaierau 33-31.
Heartland XV
Whanganui’s Cooks Gardens will host both of the end-of-season games for the New Zealand Heartland XV at the end of October.
Selected from the best local players in the Bunnings Warehouse Heartland Championship, the side will play a New Zealand Māori Selection on October 29 and then take on the New Zealand Barbarians on November 2.
