Taranaki blanked by Canterbury
Sat, 23 Aug 2008 13:23
Canterbury moved up to third spot in the Air New Zealand Cup log standings with a routine 14-0 victory over Taranaki at Yarrow Stadium in New Plymouth.
The Christchurch outfit notched up their 23rd win from their last 25 encounters against Taranaki to condemn the side to their third consecutive loss.
It was the home side that had the first scoring chance, but Taranaki flyhalf Willie Ripia drilled his penalty attempt wide from halfway.
Taranaki were quick out of the blocks, but failed to utilise their early possession.
In the 21st minute, pivot Ripia wasted another good opportunity when he fluffed another penalty attempt, and Taranaki were forming a habit of wasting points a minute later when, close to the Canterbury line, a Taranaki player opted to kick through.
The chance was wasted, and Taranaki ended up paying dearly for their early profligacy.
It is often the case that a team that squanders chances, are punished soon after, and that was true in this case as Canterbury slotted a penalty through flyhalf Colin Slade to make it 3-0.
A few minutes later the visitors had yet another shot at goal, after Taranaki infringed in the line-out. Slade stepped up once again to convert, and push the score up to 6-0 in the 31st minute.
Canterbury were quickly learning that they could profit from all the basic mistakes committed by the home side, using the high bomb to good effect. Taranaki failed to catch cleanly and it kept the Cantabrians on the front foot.
That pressure resulted in another penalty for off-side against Taranaki close to half-time, and Slade made no mistake to take the score to 9-0 at the break.
In the second period Taranaki's basics deteriorated even further. Their confidence was visibly shaken as their handling and their line-outs became somewhat of a shambles, and Ripia confounded their misery with a third missed penalty attempt on 63 minutes.
That miss broke the camel's back, and Taranaki never looked like scoring again, despite a few sharp bursts by scrumhalf Brett Goodin.
The match drifted to its inevitable conclusion, but Canterbury did finally cross the try-line in the last minute through fullback Paul Williams, who found space out wide to crash over for the game's only try.
Slade failed to convert, but it didn't matter as the visitors kept Taranaki's score sheet blank on the night, relegating them down to 13th position on the log table.
Scorers:
For Canterbury:
Try: Williams
Pens: Slade 3
For Taranaki:
None
Teams:
Taranaki: 15 Asalemo Malo, 14 Paul Perez, 13 Jonathan Spratt, 12 Jayden Hayward, 11 Shayne Austin, 10 Willie Ripia, 9 Brett Goodin, 8 Taiasina Tuifua, 7 Scott Waldrom, 6 Nemia Soqeta, 5 Craig Clarke, 4 Jason Eaton, 3 Shane Cleaver, 2 Laurence Corlett, 1 Tony
Penn (captain).
Replacements: 16 James Annabell, 17 Carl Carmichael, 18 Leon Power, 19 Alex Tulou, 20 Brendan Haami, 21 Corey Niwa, 22 Jack Cameron.
Canterbury: 15 Paul Williams, 14 Scott Hamilton, 13 Adam Whitelock, 12 Tim Bateman, 11 James Paterson, 10 Colin Slade, 9 Tyson Keats, 8 Mose Tuiali'i, 7 George Whitelock, 6 Kieran Read (captain), 5 Isaac Ross, 4 Michael Paterson, 3 Campbell Johnstone, 2 Steve Fualau, 1 Wyatt Crockett.
Replacements: 16 Richard Wheeler, 17 Peter Borlase, 18 Nasi Manu, 19 Hayden Hopgood, 20 Steve Alfeld, 21 Ryan Crotty, 22 Endo Kosuke.
Referee: Jonathon White
TMO: Brent Murray
