Wanganui winger Samu Kubunavanua beats the tackle from King Country halfback Zayn Tipping, with Wanganui halfback Lindsay Horrocks in support. PHOTO/GETTY IMAGES
Wanganui winger Samu Kubunavanua beats the tackle from King Country halfback Zayn Tipping, with Wanganui halfback Lindsay Horrocks in support. PHOTO/GETTY IMAGES
Steelform Wanganui was not the only team to come right in the post season as a number of the traditional powerhouses of the Pink Batts Heartland Championship found traction on Saturday afternoon.
Only one of the four Meads and Lochore Cup semifinals was won by the side with home townadvantage, and that was close enough as undefeated Buller ended Horowhenua-Kapiti's best ever Heartland season with a 22-15 thriller in Westport.
Leading 12-5 at halftime and then having levelled the match with a Perry Hayman penalty to be 15-15 just before the hooter, Horowhenua Kapiti had apparently done enough to force an extra 20 minutes.
But Buller first-five James Lash regathered a last-gasp kick and sprinted 50m to score under the posts, sending the home supporters into a frenzy.
They will now host Mid Canterbury on Saturday after they upset 2014's other big improvers Poverty Bay, 29-17 in front of a disappointed Gisborne crowd.
After a mid-season slump where they drew a game and lost two, including 29-19 to Buller in Ashburton, the defending Meads Cup champions won their way to third on the table then into a successive top tier final, while ending the run of the home side, who managed to close the gap to seven points after 60 minutes, but had left themselves too much to do.
Yet all of Wanganui's focus will be on North Otago, who showed they are well past their poor form of the early rounds by beating South Canterbury 16-12 in the local derby in Timaru.
South Canterbury had only missed out on the Meads Cup semifinals on the last weekend of the round robin, but North Otago still have a good record when they visit Alpine Energy Stadium and are used to big pressure games.
Two second-half penalties saw them home and into an unlikely home Lochore Cup final given Wanganui thumped top Lochore seed King Country for their first win on the road in 2014.
The Meads Cup final will be at 1.35pm on Saturday, while the Lochore Cup playoff is 2.35pm on Sunday.
