{"id":61180,"date":"2025-10-05T19:17:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-05T19:17:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/61180\/"},"modified":"2025-10-05T19:17:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-05T19:17:10","slug":"npc-rugby-home-quarter-final-for-magpies-against-nemesis-taranaki","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/61180\/","title":{"rendered":"NPC rugby: Home quarter-final for Magpies against nemesis Taranaki"},"content":{"rendered":"

To keep the hopes alive, the Magpies had to beat Manawat\u016b Turbos in Palmerston North on Saturday night – succeeding with a 6-tries-to-2, 38-10 victory.<\/p>\n

On a wet ground, the Magpies started warm TAB favourites to win and controlled the game from the start.<\/p>\n

They led 21-0 at halftime but had to wait until the 15th minute of the 2nd half before hooker and season\u2019s co-captain Jacob Devery scored a near-prerequisite Magpies bonus-point 4th try, eventually completing the regular season with a 7th win.<\/p>\n

Going for a 10th consecutive win in the cross-ranges clash since Manawat\u016b last won in 2014, the Magpies let the bucket-heads know they were in town from the start.<\/p>\n

Centre Anaru Paenga-Morgan scored in the third minute, after fullback Zarn Sullivan carved neatly through the Manawat\u016b defence, to set the ball up close to the line.<\/p>\n

It was a sign of things to come, with Sullivan figuring in almost every try as the Magpies dominated the left flank.<\/p>\n

Left wing Neria Fomai scored in the 29th minute before Sullivan gained his 5pts reward just on time.<\/p>\n

First five-eighths Lincoln McClutchie<\/a> converted all three, and Devery\u2019s effort in the second half.<\/p>\n

It took McClutchie to 36 points in 4 appearances this season since first taking the No 10 shirt in the injury absence of first choice Harry Godfrey.<\/p>\n

Manawat\u016b scored two unconverted tries, to hooker Vernon Bason and wing James Tofa (his 8th of the season), sandwiching a piece of extra skill from Magpies No 8 Devan Flanders, toeing ahead as a pass dropped on to his boot and chasing the ball to score just entering the last quarter.<\/p>\n

Fomai scored his 2nd try, and 4th of the season, in the 76th minute.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Poverty Bay, with Wairoa players Ngahiwi Manuel and Keanu Taumata starring, were denied a Heartland Rugby semifinal in about as close a call as could be.<\/p>\n

Wairarapa-Bush and Poverty started in 6th and 7th positions respectively, each on 23 points and knowing the winner could finish as senior on the ladder as 2nd place.<\/p>\n

On the artificial turf in Masterton, hooker Manuel scored 2 tries and flanker Taumata 1 as Poverty Bay led 17-10 with 27 minutes to go, in a game in which they trailed for only 8 of the 80 minutes of ordinary time.<\/p>\n

Wairarapa scored a converted try in the 76th minute to tie the game at 24-all and scored again in extra time to win 29-24, to make their way into the Meads Cup semifinals, a place that would have gone to Poverty Bay had they not conceded the dramatic late tries.<\/p>\n

Doug Laing is a senior reporter for Hawke\u2019s Bay Today, based in Napier for 38 years, covering most aspects of news and sport.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"To keep the hopes alive, the Magpies had to beat Manawat\u016b Turbos in Palmerston North on Saturday night…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61181,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[50332,9092,10043,2082,305,1976,42,1345,9612,17768,50331,43,1536,22308,1523,50330,6327,10809,16715,40,38,41,39,4767,1533],"class_list":["post-61180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-50332","tag-against","tag-canterburys","tag-for","tag-have","tag-hawkes","tag-headlines","tag-home","tag-magpies","tag-means","tag-nemesis","tag-news","tag-next","tag-npc","tag-over","tag-quarterfinal","tag-rugby","tag-sunday","tag-taranaki","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-weekend","tag-will"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61180\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}