Nui Muriwai of Wellington during the NPC – Wellington v Auckland at Porirua Park/Jerry Collins Stadium, Wellington.
Photo: Masanori Udagawa
Auckland’s now embarrassingly winless NPC campaign continued with a defeat at a rain-soaked Jerry Collins Stadium in Porirua, going down 36-17 to Wellington.
While the awful conditions suggested that it would be a tight affair and probably play into Auckland’s favour, it only took Wellington a minute and a half to open the scoring. All Black Ruben Love had an easy run in to the corner, with Jackson Garden-Bachop’s conversion making it 100 points conceded by Auckland in just fractionally more than two games.
Xavier Numia then reminded everyone watching just how dangerous he can be with ball in hand, sprinting 40 metres to intelligently use the conditions to his advantage by diving early and scoring under the posts, taking the score to 17-0 in Wellington’s favour. Unfortunately, Numia later had to limp off with what looked to be a knee injury.
To their credit, Auckland took control of the rest of the first half, first scoring a well earned try to Angus Ta’avao and then unlucky not to get another when Caleb Delany just knocked down a pass that would’ve seen Caleb Clarke score on his first time back on a rugby field since he was injured in the lead up to the second test against France.
The strong effort continued for Auckland in the second half, however they made some ultimately costly decisions by constantly favouring their lineout as the way through Wellington’s defence. The issue was that the home side’s countermeasures at the drive rendered it completely ineffective, meaning Auckland’s efforts were ultimately a complete waste of time and energy.
So it was more than ironic that Wellington were the next team to score, after Auckland had stolen their first attacking lineout in about half an hour. However, Rico Simpson’s clearance was charged down by Caleb Delany and dived on by Hugo Plummer to score. Before Auckland could blink, Losi Filipo scored under the posts to push Wellington out to a match winning lead.
Auckland managed consolation tries to Clarke and Caleb Tangitau after finally binning their lineout drive and taking quick taps, something that they probably should’ve figured out long before it consigned them their fifth loss in a row. Just to rub it in, the game ended with Japanese import Kenshi Yamamoto scoring a popular but ultimately meaningless try as Wellington had already secured a bonus point.
Auckland face Tasman next weekend, while the resurgent Wellington take on Hawke’s Bay.
Read how the game unfolded here: