{"id":73179,"date":"2025-10-12T04:15:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-12T04:15:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/73179\/"},"modified":"2025-10-12T04:15:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-12T04:15:07","slug":"canterbury-v-counties-manukau-result-hosts-need-extra-time-to-reach-npc-semifinals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/73179\/","title":{"rendered":"Canterbury v Counties Manukau result: Hosts need extra time to reach NPC semifinals"},"content":{"rendered":"

The result means Canterbury will host Hawke\u2019s Bay in next Saturday\u2019s semifinals while Otago will face Bay of Plenty on Friday to find the finalists for 2025.<\/p>\n

It also brings an end to a remarkable season for the Steelers, who somehow made the finals despite losing their first five matches of the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cMan, it was hard to let them go away, but I\u2019m just super proud of this group,\u201d Counties captain Jimmy Tupou told Sky Sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cPretty disappointed, mate, but we can walk off with our heads held high.\u201d<\/p>\n

Counties opened the scoring with a penalty goal to Gibson Popoalii, but it was the hosts who would claim the opening try of the game through Jamie Hannah.<\/p>\n

However, the Steelers didn\u2019t take long to respond with two quick tries through Popoalii and Ioane Moananu, which saw them take a 15-5 lead at the break.<\/p>\n

Canterbury came out roaring in the second half with a penalty goal and a converted try to Braydon Ennor to level proceedings heading into the final 20 minutes. <\/p>\n

Canterbury had chances to win the game through a Fihaki penalty and Andrew Knewstubb drop kick, but both missed, forcing the match into two 10-minute halves of extra time.<\/p>\n

The red and blacks showed their class when it mattered most and proved why they are the team to beat, as they chase their first title since 2017.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The result means Canterbury will host Hawke\u2019s Bay in next Saturday\u2019s semifinals while Otago will face Bay of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73180,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[33322,8126,4487,57534,57532,27308,25630,57533,5971,23362,111,139,22308,69,1523,51460,50330,19328,12229,21231,213,12825,2044,61],"class_list":["post-73179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-33322","tag-canterbury","tag-christchurch","tag-comefrombehind","tag-counties","tag-extra","tag-hosts","tag-manukau","tag-need","tag-needed","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-npc","tag-nz","tag-over","tag-produce","tag-quarterfinal","tag-reach","tag-result","tag-semifinals","tag-sports","tag-stunning","tag-time","tag-to"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73179","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=73179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73179\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}