{"id":612408,"date":"2026-09-26T12:44:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-26T12:44:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/612408\/"},"modified":"2026-09-26T12:44:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-26T12:44:17","slug":"late-penalty-sees-counties-stun-northland-win-ranfurly-shield","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/612408\/","title":{"rendered":"Late penalty sees Counties stun Northland, win Ranfurly Shield"},"content":{"rendered":"

Counties Manukau have pulled off an historic upset this afternoon beating Northland 22-19 to claim the Ranfurly Shield in the penultimate round of this year’s NPC regular season.<\/p>\n

The Taniwha entered the match as heavy favourites, having already defended the Log o’ Wood this year against Tasman and Waikato but the Steelers finally put together a gritty performance they’ve been searching for in an otherwise tough season.<\/p>\n

On a wet day in the Far North, Northland centurion Sam Nock opened the scoring with a darting run from a ruck near the line. <\/p>\n

\"Northland<\/p>\n

Northland Sam Nock just short of the try during Northland vs Counties Manukau (Source: Photosport)<\/p>\n

Counties responded with some creativity of their own – a chipped box kick chased down by Sione Molia to score in the left corner.<\/p>\n

But from there, the hosts looked to assert their dominance, forging a significant advantage in territory and possession over the visitors and converting it into a 14-5 lead at halftime with James Ramm dotting down before halftime.<\/p>\n

But the Steelers wouldn’t fall away.<\/p>\n

After the break, Counties midfielder Gibson Popoali’i showed his strength to close the gap once more, taking a tap penalty five metres from the line and muscling his way over despite the efforts of four Northland defenders. <\/p>\n

But once again Northland found a response with Corey Evans using the momentum of his side’s dominant scrum to score out wide but the missed conversion by Rivez Reihana meant it was just a seven point margin.<\/p>\n

Counties got their chance soon after. A wayward clearing kick giving them a lineout just outside Northland’s 22 and after a composed 14 phases of attack, found the chalk out wide with a floated pass to fullback Adam Morrison.<\/p>\n

A composed AJ Alatimu slotted the conversion from out wide to level the scores, then sealed a historic result minutes later with a penalty in the 79th minute.<\/p>\n

\"Northland<\/p>\n

Northland Heremaia Murray is tackled by Counties Manukau AJ Alatimu and Counties Manukau Josh Gray. (Source: Photosport)<\/p>\n

Northland desperately chased one last response – even at times looking as though they hoped to nab a penalty of their own to send the match to golden point – but in the end a handling error ended the match, silencing Semenoff Stadium besides the roar of the triumphant.<\/p>\n

The successful challenge marks the first time Counties has held the shield since 2013 and is just the second time in the province’s history they’ve now held it.<\/p>\n

Captain Jimmy Tupou, who was part of the 2013 squad, said after the match today’s result was “extra special”.<\/p>\n

“I was probably a bit young and na\u00efve [last time] and we had a pretty star studded team,” Tupou recalled of the Tana Umaga-coached squad.<\/p>\n

“To come back in the end part of my career and give these boys the experience of what it does… she’s been a tough old season and for us this was our final.”<\/p>\n

But they’ll have another final to worry about now with table-toppers Hawke’s Bay now getting a shot next week in the final round of the season.<\/p>\n

That match will be next Saturday at Navigation Homes Stadium in Pukekohe at 5pm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Counties Manukau have pulled off an historic upset this afternoon beating Northland 22-19 to claim the Ranfurly Shield…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":612409,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,1067,69,213],"class_list":["post-612408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-northland","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612408","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=612408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612408\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/612409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=612408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=612408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=612408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}