Wellington maintained their push for a home semi-final in this year's Air New Zealand Cup with a 41-7 victory over Northland in Whangarei on Sunday.
The bonus point win saw Wellington retain third spot in the standings for the second week running and leaves them well-placed with two rounds to go. Conrad Smith, wing Hosea Gear and centre Tamati Ellison, returned after a number of weeks on the injury list to play strong roles along with fellow All Black Cory Jane.
Smith was his usual elegant self, showing none of the hamstring problems that had plagued him for some six weeks, while Gear powered over for two tries which increased his season's tally to 10. It was a sentimental match for Northland -- when fly-half David Holwell ran on for the start, it was his 100th match for the province.
Wellington recovered from an early try for Northland's Jared Payne to score two tries through Tamati Ellison and hooker Ged Robinson for a 17-7 lead at halftime.
With Wellington's forwards gaining the upper hand in the second half which ensured a plentiful supply of ball for their dangerous backline, there was little Northland could do but spend most of the half defending their line. Halfback Alby Mathewson, who had a strong game, was rewarded with a try which was followed by Gear's double.
Southland opened the second half floodgates to overwhelm Tasman 41-0 in their Air New Zealand Cup showdown in Invercargill on Saturday. Ahead just 7-0 at halftime, Southland ran in six second half tries to pick up the bonus-point win and climb up the table into a secure top four position.
Southland - coming off losses in recent weeks to Auckland and Wellington - dominated possession and territory, if not the scoreboard, in the first-half. It took nearly 20 minutes for the southerners to get points on the board, despite their increasing control at the breakdown as they committed players in numbers and steadily ground Tasman down.
All Blacks scrum-half Jimmy Cowan, who looked sharp with the ball in hand and displayed an astute kicking game as well, finally broke through Tasman's well-organised defence after captain Jamie Mackintosh's initial assault on the line was repelled. Robbie Robinson converted, but Southland couldn't add to the score before the halftime whistle.
It was a different story in the second half, as they showed their intentions within the first two minutes with fullback Glen Horton crossing for the first of his three tries. The second followed soon after, as the Southland backline started to run riot, given the perfect platform to perform on thanks to a sterling effort from their relentless forwards.
Centre Jason Kawau and back-row John Hardie added to the score in quick succession before Horton brought up his hat-trick with just over 10 minutes to go. Fittingly, the last try of the match went to hard-working hooker Jason Rutledge, who burrowed over in the corner in the last minute of play.
Bay of Plenty's semi-final dreams look to be in tatters after they suffered their second loss in a row, going down 7-28 to North Harbour in Albany. After running in the top four for much of the season, Bay of Plenty are on the verge of becoming also-rans, having dropped to eighth with two rounds left to play.
They came into the match needing a win after last week's heartbreaking 19-22 loss to Hawke's Bay but faced early disruption when prop James McGougan failed a fitness test just before the game and was replaced by Ted Tauroa in the starting lineup.
They lost halfback Junior Poluleuligaga to injury in the first five minutes of the game and then his replacement, Josh Hall, also came off due to injury forcing centre Nigel Hunt into the No.9 spot for the rest of the match.
Such was North Harbour's pace and accuracy with the ball, they made the Bay of Plenty defence look second-rate as scrum-half Nalu Tuigamala scored two well-taken tries with returning All Black McAlister chiming in with one of his own, that was set up by a break from fly-half Mike Harris.
Harris put two penalties on the board and kicked two conversions to help North Harbour take a 25-0 lead into the break. Bay of Plenty, after a dressing down from coach Jeremy Curragh, came out with some fire in the second half and scored early through lock Culum Retallick for Mike Delaney to convert. But North Harbour, enjoying their best night since their 22-19 win over Canterbury in the first round, were not to be denied from claiming their third win from their last four matches.
Waikato timed their run to perfection in Dunedin, a last-minute try securing them a bonus-point 35-29 win over Otago and a place in the top four with the play-offs two weeks away. It was their sixth win from the last seven starts, but the result was in doubt right up to the closing seconds until big winger Tim Mikkelson powered down the right wing to secure victory.
Jackson Willison picked up the first of his two tries after barely three minutes, barrelling over in the corner after good work earlier from captain Liam Messam. Otago bounced back soon after when All Blacks flanker Adam Thomson showed an impressive turn of speed to cross after fullback Ben Smith sliced through some indifferent Waikato defence in the midfield.
Fly-half Glenn Dickson missed a difficult conversion, but was in excellent form otherwise with the boot, landing three first-half penalties. His tally included one huge 60 metre effort to tie the scores at 14-14 after Messam was shown the yellow card for offside play at the breakdown with 33 minutes gone.
Shortly before, Willison again touched down after Waikato moved the ball quickly from an attacking scrum and quick hands created the space for a well-taken try. The two teams settled down to a protracted arm-wrestle in the second half, broken finally when hard-running Waikato prop Hikairo Forbes battered over the line to give his team some breathing space.
Otago fought back and Smith capped off an excellent all-round game when he accelerated through a half-gap from five metres out to score after an extended period of pressure on the Waikato line. Dickson added the extras, and the match was poised at 30-29 to Waikato until Mikkelson settled matters with the late try.
Canterbury underlined their growing dominance of the competition and strengthened their grasp on the Ranfurly Shield with a 50-26 win over Manawatu in Christchurch on Friday.
Apart from the opening few minutes, when Manawatu ignored the script to score an early try, Canterbury looked assured in racking up a dominant eight-try victory. They were aided in no small part by the return of a swathe of All Blacks, with props Wyatt Crockett and Owen Franks, lock Brad Thorn and blindside flanker Kieran Read all starting.
Richie McCaw and fly-half Dan Carter began on the bench, although McCaw was called into action after flanker Kieran Read left the field after just 20 minutes. Carter only came on for the final stages, and wasted barely a minute of his time before crossing for Canterbury's last try.
But it was Manawatu who struck first, catching Canterbury unawares after some elusive running from New Zealand Under-20 captain and fly-half Aaron Cruden. Cruden ghosted through two defenders and timed his pass to Aaron James perfectly for the winger to cross, with Isaac Thompson converting to give the visitors a surprise lead.
But that lead lasted all of a minute before Read resumed normal service with a well-taken try on the counter-attack after an initial break from halfback Andy Ellis. Tries to Sam Whitelock and winger Tu Umaga-Marshall followed in quick succession as the competition leaders stretched out to a 19-7 lead. With Canterbury looking increasingly slick, and with a plentiful supply of quick turnover ball, Read picked up his second try to extend the lead to 26-7.
Manawatu ended the first half as they began, a try to lock James Goode after a period of concerted pressure finally breaking through Canterbury's well-drilled defence as the southerners went into halftime 33-12 ahead. Second-half tries followed for Canterbury to Ellis, Colin Slade and Carter as both teams ignored a kicking game in favour of running rugby.
Manawatu, who scored through Goode again midway through the second half, were rewarded in the closing minutes when substitute centre Tevita Taufui crossed for the bonus point try. The win entrenched Canterbury's position at the top of the table, with only two losses from 11 games while Manawatu, with three wins to their credit, lie 11th.
Auckland clung to a lifeline by beating Taranaki 10-0 in miserable conditions in New Plymouth. The result kept the Aucklanders in contention for a semi-final berth while Taranaki now have nothing more than pride at stake in their last two games.
The match was a virtual playoff because Auckland entered the game in seventh position and Taranaki ninth, with the winners surviving to fight another day and the losers being consigned to also-ran status.
The appalling conditions dictated that much of the play was confined to in and around the rucks and when and if the ball was aired it was shifted in short passing movements to reduce the likelihood of mistakes. Auckland's forwards coped admirably against both the elements and a willing Taranaki pack as the visitors snuck ahead 7-0 while playing into the wind in the first spell.
They engineered a controlled lineout drive during one of their few visits to the opposition 22 before flanker Onosai Auva'a detached to scamper the last few metres on his own. Auckland totally dominated the third quarter everywhere but on the scoreboard, with Moa influential as they spent large periods deep on attack.
It seemed only a matter of time before Auckland were rewarded but they were kept waiting until five minutes from full-time when they forced a penalty inside the 22 for first five-eighth Ash Moeke to convert into points.
Hawke's Bay overcame a sloppy start to ease their way towards the Air New Zealand Cup semi-finals with a resounding 54-8 win over strugglers Counties-Manukau in Napier on Thursday.
The bonus-point result consolidated their second placing, leaving them to win one of their remaining two games, at home against Canterbury and away to lowly Northland, to confirm a play-offs berth. But Hawke's Bay were far from convincing, taking well into the second half to get on top of bottom-placed Counties-Manukau who more than held their own for 50 minutes.
Hawke's Bay led just 13-8 at the interval but ended with seven tries, including a hat-trick to young wing Zac Guildford, who lifted his season's tally to 12. All of Guildford's tries came in a 10-minute burst and the best was his last when he stepped three defenders from a standing start.
The hosts were too complacent in the first half after a disjointed effort against opponents who hustled, bustled and disrupted the heavy pre-match favourites. Counties-Manukau provided the highlight of the first stanza when mobile prop Simon Lemalu scored a try after sloppy passing among the Hawke's Bay backs gifted a turnover.
Lemalu picked up the spoils himself and put through a grubber kick which sat up nicely for flanker DJ Forbes before Lemalu followed up to accept the final pass to cross the line. That cancelled out an earlier try to Hawke's Bay prop Faka'anaua Taumalolo following a series of pick-and-goes by the home side's forwards.
Hawke's Bay side received a boost early in the second half when No.8 Thomas Waldrom scored a try after catching Counties-Manukau unawares when he took a quick tap from a scrum free kick. Fly-half Mathew Berquist maintained his fine goalkicking record with the conversion then added a penalty to stretch his side's advantage out to 23-8 with 30 minutes remaining.
Waldrom accounted for their third try, too, being driven over the line after a lineout drive as Hawke's Bay turned to their forwards to gain the control lacking earlier. Opportunities then began presenting themselves as the match opened up, and Hawke's Bay quickly added further tries to captain Jason Shoemark and Guildford as Counties-Manukau fell off the pace.