News

Canterbury off to a late start

August 09 2008

Canterbury put the shock of last week's Air New Zealand Cup loss to Manawatu behind them with a patchy 20-13 win over Otago at Carisbrook on Saturday.

The Cantabs dominated the first hour and should have led by far more - indeed, they nearly threw the game away late on by falling off the pace before the job was done.

Otago, on the other hand, started playing far too late, only truly firing any shots when trailing 20-3 early in the second half.

The visitors opened the scoring with barely aminute on the clock, when Mose Tuiali'i's burst from 40m out enabled scrum-half Tyson Keats to dot down, with Colin Slade converting.

Slade added a penalty on five minutes, and the rest of the half was dominated by Canterbury, but they could only manage one more Slade penalty, cancelled out by a long-range effort from Chris Noakes for a half-time score of 13-3.

The visitors started the second half as they had the first, with full-back Paul Williams rounding off an excelent three-minute string of phase play. Slade converted and made it 20-3.

A bonus point should have beckoned, but the Cantabs lost their shape, and Otago fought back.

Toby Morland hacked through the bouncing ball fro an Aaron Bancroft chip to register Otago's first try, and Noakes converted, and Daniel Bowden landed a penalty with three minutes to go to make it 20-13 with three minutes to play.

It prompted a siege of the Canterbury 22 from the Otago side, but a knock-on spelled the end of their chances.

The scorers:

For Otago:

Try: Morland

Con: Noakes

Pens: Noakes, Bowden

For Canterbury:

Tries: Keats, Williams

Cons: Slade 2

Pens: Slade 2

Otago: 15 Glen Horton, 14 Lucky Mulipola, 13 Brett Mather, 12 Aaron Bancroft, 11 Karne Hesketh, 10 Chris Noakes, 9 Toby Morland, 8 Steven Setephano, 7 Craig Newby (c), 6 Seko Qaraniqio, 5 Tom Donnelly, 4 Ross Kennedy, 3 Jed Vercoe, 2 Jason MacDonald, 1 Keith Cameron.

Replacements: 16 Peter Mirrielees, 17 Ben Nolan, 18 Paul Grant, 19 Hoani Matenga, 20 Sean Romans, 21 Daniel Bowden, 22 Ben Smith.

Canterbury: 15 Paul Williams, 14 Scott Hamilton, 13 Adam Whitelock, 12 Tim Bateman, 11 James Paterson, 10 Colin Slade, 9 Tyson Keats, 8 Mose Tuiali'i, 7 Hayden Hopgood, 6 Kieran Read (c), 5 Isaac Ross, 4 Michael Paterson, 3 Campbell Johnstone, 2 Ti'i Paulo, 1 Wyatt Crockett.

Replacements: 16 Steve Fualau, 17 Owen Franks, 18 James Broadhurst, 19 George Whitelock, 20 Steve Alfeld, 21 Ryan Crotty, 22 Kosuke Endo.

Referee: Steve Walsh

TMO: Todd Pullar