“This Taranaki team threw it all at us, so we’re going to recover over the next couple of days and look forward to a good challenge ahead against Northland,” Canterbury captain Brodie McAlister told Sky Sport.
The top team in the regular season, for much of their semi-final, Canterbury were just too good for Taranaki.
The Amber and Blacks had a tough job slowing down the Canterbury attack, with the hosts’ pack doing a great job carrying and cleaning the ruck to allow the ball to be moved along quickly.
Canterbury applied pressure and kept it on through the first half, drawing penalties – including a yellow card for Taranaki lock Fiti Sa, who was the unlucky one sent for a spell after his side’s repeated infringements – while errors also affected the Taranaki attack.
Taranaki looked good in patches, particularly through the middle of the second half when they caught Canterbury on the counter to score through centre Meihana Grindlay and scored soon after through Kaylum Boshier to give their side some hope.
But after their fast start to the contest, Canterbury closed things out with second-half tries to second five-eighths Jone Rova and right wing Isaac Hutchinson saw the side home and into the final.
McAlister said making the most of the Taranaki errors and poor discipline in the first half was key to the win.
“Going into halftime, we knew that Taranaki have been a dangerous team all season, so we knew that they were going to throw the kitchen sink at it in the second half and we had to be right on, and they did that,” he said.
“Once again we probably went to a lull bit in that after halftime, but yeah, pretty proud of the effort from the lads.”
Canterbury opened the scoring in the 15th minute through loose forward Corey Kellow.
Taranaki struck back moments later through centre Seta Tamanivalu, however the match didn’t stay level long as Canterbury reclaimed the lead through Kurtis MacDonald.
Blindside flanker Xavier Treacy and lock Sam Darry also crossed in the first half for a 26-7 lead to the hosts at the break.
When Rova scored three minutes after the restart, things were starting to look dire for the visitors. But they fought back and ultimately closed the gap through Grindlay and Boshier.
Hutchinson’s try in the 61st minute gave the hosts some breathing room and while Taranaki struck again through Grindlay six minutes later, that was where their comeback stopped.
While they would have liked to host the final – which they would have done had Taranaki upset Canterbury – Northland won’t have any qualms with travelling to Christchurch to try to get the job done.
The last time the sides met was in Christchurch back in round four in late August, when Northland dominated their hosts to win 36-12 and relieve the Cantabrians of the Ranfurly Shield.
Canterbury 38 (Corey Kellow, Kurtis MacDonald, Xavier Treacy, Sam Darry, Jone Rova, Isaac Hutchinson tries; Hutchinson 4 cons)
Taranaki 28 (Meihana Grindlay 2, Seta Tamanivalu, Kaylum Boshier tries; Josh Jacomb 4 cons)
HT: 26-7