Otago can still reflect on a wonderful season but they will not get to do it while gazing adoringly at the NPC trophy.<\/p>\n
They won the Ranfurly Shield, they brought the buzz back to provincial rugby, and they unleashed a handful of new young stars.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, Canterbury proved just too strong at the final hurdle.<\/p>\n
Otago were good value for some of the NPC final at a sold-out Apollo Projects Stadium in Christchurch this afternoon.<\/p>\n
Canterbury, however, were better at crucial moments, showed all their defensive stoutness and dominated the second half to win 36-28.<\/p>\n
It was a first NPC title in eight years for the Cantabs, and made it a double to go with the Crusaders\u2019 Super Rugby victory earlier this season.<\/p>\n
Otago had led 14-10 at halftime but there was a sneaking suspicion they had not done enough with the wind behind them.<\/p>\n
Canterbury looked set to erase the halftime deficit immediately but Otago\u2019s turnover king, Jona Nareki, shut them down.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, a subsequent lineout went wonky, and Canterbury spread it wide to winger Manasa Mataele for the try that gave the home side the lead for the first time.<\/p>\n
Canterbury looked set for another dangerous foray when that man Nareki again came up with a big ball-pinching play, running back on the perfect angle to snatch an intercept.<\/p>\n
Then came a classic example of why Canterbury, curse them, are so hard to beat.<\/p>\n
They held on to the ball, ground away at the line with relentless forward rumbles, and eventually dished the ball wide for Braydon Ennor to score.<\/p>\n
Chay Fihaki\u2019s second conversion made it 24-14 to the home side, a handy but far from insurmountable advantage.<\/p>\n
Otago botched another lineout \u2013 theirs was the best set piece in the NPC this season \u2013 and struggled to get out of their own half.<\/p>\n
Canterbury made them pay for that.<\/p>\n
Quick ball was spread to Mataele, who beat one defender and dished to first five Andrew Knewstubb.<\/p>\n
He then passed inside to halfback Louis Chapman, playing his 50th game, for what appeared to be the dagger try.<\/p>\n
Otago did not get that memo.<\/p>\n
Reserve midfielder Josh Whaanga made the break of his life and, from the subsequent breakdown, Dylan Pledger set up substitute prop Ben Lopas for a crucial try.<\/p>\n
Cameron Millar\u2019s conversion made it 31-21 to Canterbury with 16 minutes to play.<\/p>\n
Anything was possible but Otago really needed to score next.<\/p>\n
The tension was nearly unbearable as Canterbury launched another long attack, only to be met with some withering Otago defence.<\/p>\n
Heart, courage, commitment \u2013 everything was on full display at this stage of the season.<\/p>\n
And then Otago\u2019s season was effectively sealed.<\/p>\n
It was sealed by some bloke called Gus Brown, a reserve prop who chose this moment to score his first try for the red and blacks.<\/p>\n
A 15-point lead with nine minutes to play was commanding for Canterbury.<\/p>\n
Too commanding, as it turned out.<\/p>\n
Nareki scored a consolation try, and Finn Hurley kicked a lovely consolation conversion.<\/p>\n
But it is doubtful many Otago fans could be immediately consoled.<\/p>\n
Earlier, Otago had capitalised on their first attacking foray of the game.<\/p>\n
A clean lineout was followed by a series of daring offloads and a classic Pledger dart then a Thomas Umaga-Jensen smash that carried the centre over for the first try.<\/p>\n
The 7-0 advantage lasted just a couple of minutes.<\/p>\n
Canterbury lock Jamie Hannah found a gap in the defence wider than the Rakaia River and stormed 40m upfield.<\/p>\n
A few phases later, second five Dallas McLeod staged an acrobatic leap over a ruck to score right in the corner.<\/p>\n
The game was being played at a frantic place but also with plenty of physicality.<\/p>\n
Otago showed plenty of patience as they worked their way back, at one stage holding on the ball for 25 phases.<\/p>\n
Their dominance led to a series of penalty advantages and an attacking scrum.<\/p>\n
Christian Lio-Willie went close before loose forward team-mate Lucas Casey caught the defence napping and scored Otago\u2019s second try under the posts.<\/p>\n
That was a quarter of the game gone \u2013 and it had been breathless. Sunny afternoon rugby at its best.<\/p>\n
A Millar kick got away on him in the breeze, allowing Canterbury to get back on attack, and they duly ground out a second try through hooker Brodie McAlister.<\/p>\n
Fihaki missed a second conversion \u2013 the wind and the angle did him no favours, to be fair \u2013 leaving Otago holding a 14-10 lead.<\/p>\n
Canterbury knocked on, Otago knocked on, and there were signs a couple of big-game nerves had crept on to the field.<\/p>\n
Either that or the sheer tempo of the first stages of the game had taken a toll.<\/p>\n
You sensed the final 10 minutes of the half would be crucial.<\/p>\n
Otago were looking good but, given they had the wind, they dearly wanted more points to take into the break.<\/p>\n
Likewise, Canterbury would have been massively boosted had they levelled the scores or even taken a slightly unwarranted lead.<\/p>\n
Otago won a couple of handy scrum penalties and got an attacking lineout with three minutes left in the half.<\/p>\n
But a late knock on from golden boy Pledger, after a ball that came flying out of a ruck, gave Canterbury a chance to close out the first half.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
NPC final<\/p>\n
The scores<\/p>\n
Canterbury 36<\/p>\n
Dallas McLeod, Brodie McAlister, Manasa Mataele, Braydon Ennor, Louis Chapman, Gus Brown tries; Chay Fihaki 3 con<\/p>\n
Otago 28<\/p>\n
Thomas Umaga-Jensen, Lucas Casey, Ben Lopas, Jona Nareki tries; Cameron Millar 3 con, Finn Hurley con<\/p>\n
Halftime: Otago 14-10.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Otago can still reflect on a wonderful season but they will not get to do it while gazing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":99958,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-99957","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99957","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=99957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99957\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}