Weepu leaves Lions on top
Fri, 08 Aug 2008 13:42
All Black scrumhalf Piri Weepu hopes that his Wellington Lions team can continue their current form in the Air New Zealand Cup while he embarks on Tri-Nations duty with the New Zealand national side.
The All Blacks are due to arrive in South Africa on Friday on their Tri-Nations tour, and Weepu has been drafted into the squad following injury to Andrew Ellis.
The nuggety Weepu has been instrumental in Wellington's early season domination of New Zealand's premier domestic tournament, and his versatility has come in more than handy.
Weepu had to play most of Wellington's match against North Harbour on Thursday at flyhalf, after No.10 Daniel Kirkpatrick suffered an early shoulder injury that ended his match.
"When I saw Daniel was down and our reserve halfback running on I knew I had to push out straight away. It wasn't what I expected," Weepu told sportal.co.nz.
"North Harbour played most of the rugby in the first half," he said.
It wasn't all plain sailing for the Lions. Weepu regretted tossing an intercept pass that could have cost his side the match, with North Harbour wing Viliame Waqaseduadua racing 80 metres clear to score the try.
"I looked up and knew straight away and was really angry at myself. I knew we had to turn it around in the second half.
"The No.10 has to control the game and that was what I tried to do out there tonight," said Weepu.
But everything worked out well for Wellington in the end, after Weepu made up for his earlier error by setting up a try for hooker Dan Coles, before scoring a fine try himself to bring his side within striking distance of the match.
That enabled the Lions to snatch the contest late on through No.8 Thomas Waldrom, who scored in the corner in the final minute of the match.
