News

Lions maintain unbeaten run

August 22 2008

Wellington toiled hard for a 26-7 Air New Zealand Cup win over Southland in Invercargill on Friday, maintaining their undefeated run in the tournamant from four outings.

Wellington scored three of their four tries in the last 17 minutes to provide a final score-line reflecting little of what had occurred during the 80 minutes.

Nothing separated the teams at half-time after an extraordinary opening 40 minutes almost totally dominated by Southland.

The Lions showed tremendous character and determination under pressure as the home side pressed hard on to attack deep inside their territory for 25 minutes, including one ten-minute spell inside the visitors' 22 with Wellington defending with only fourteen players.

Scrum-half Alby Mathewson had been sin-binned by referee Brent Murray just minutes after scoring a brilliant solo try from the base of a turnover scrum win to take the Lions to a 7-0 lead after 10 minutes.

The Lions won Southland's ball from the scrum on halfway before Mathewson seized a gap and scorched up the blindside all the way to the chalkdust for the game's opening try.

Buoyed by their home crowd and with the wind in their favour, Southland then held the advantage in both possession and territory, but met a resolute Lions defence who held firm against the tide of attack.

No fewer than three try-saving tackles involving the TMO were made on Wellington's try-line and each time the outcome was in the Lions' favour.

First, number eight Thomas Waldrom held up flying Southland winger Matt Saunders, then industrious openside Serge Lilo stopped number nine Dane Shelford across the line, and then right wing Tu Umaga-marshall was able to put his boot under the ball and prevent fly-half Blair Stewart from scoring under the posts.

Eventually the weight of possession paid off for the Stags and hooker David Hall scored in the corner. Stewart converted and an eventful first half ended with the scores locked up at 7-all.

The second half began at a frenetic pace, the Stags continuing to enjoy much of the field position and possession, but their only clear chances came through a Stewart break up the centre of the field and a penalty that hit the uprights.

By this stage, the game was opening up more and the Lions began to create more fluidity on attack and find more holes in the Southland line. They finally hit back to retake the lead with an excellent team try from broken play.

The Lions counter-attacked superbly from near halfway, running a Stewart kick back with earnest with full-back Cory Jane shooting through to score after skilfully picking up a low pass off his bootlaces from hooker Ged Robinson.

Weepu's conversion of Jane's try made it 14-7, and he then narrowly missed a penalty that would have extended the lead out to beyond the seven-point advantage.

Instead, the Lions captain helped set up another try with a determined run inside Southland's 22 to offload and link up with Jane and replacement flanker Chris Masoe who finished off in the right hand corner for the score.

Masoe's try extended the lead to 19-5 with a little over ten minutes of the contest remaining.

Centre Tane Tu'ipulotu then demonstrated all his vision and experience in reading Southland's back-line play, securing an intercept and runaway try to put the result beyond reach.

The scorers:

For Southland:

Try: Hall

Con: Stewart

For Wellington:

Tries: Matthewson, Jane, Masoe, Tu'ipulotu

Cons: Weepu 3

Yellow card: Matthewson, (Wellington, 12 min)

Southland: 15 Mark Wells, 14 Matt Saunders, 13 Kendrick Lynn, 12 Jason Kawau (c), 11 Pehi Te Whare, 10 Blair Stewart, 9 Dane Shelford, 8 Hua Tamariki, 7 Tim Boys, 6 Dion Bates, 5 Hoani Macdonald, 4 Josh Bekhuis, 3 Chris King, 2 David Hall, 1 Jamie Mackintosh.

Replacements: 16 Jason Rutledge, 17 Fai Mika, 18 Daniel Ramsay, 19 John Hardie, 20 Scott Cowan, 21 Willie Rickards, 22 Robbie Robinson.

Wellington Lions: 15 Cory Jane, 14 Tu Umaga-Marshall, 13 Tamati Ellison, 12 Tane Tu'ipulotu, 11 Hosea Gear, 10 Piri Weepu (c), 9 Alby Mathewson, 8 Thomas Waldrom, 7 Serge Lilo, 6 Victor Vito, 5 Api Naikatini, 4 Jeremy Thrush, 3 Tim Fairbrother, 2 Ged Robinson, 1 John Schwalger.

Replacements: 16 Eugene Smith, 17 Neemia Tialata, 18 Scott Fuglistaller, 19 Chris Masoe, 20 Fa'atonu Fili, 21 Michael Hobbs, 22 Buxton Popoalii.

Kick-off: 19:35 (07:35 GMT)

Referee: Steve Walsh

TMO: Brent Murray