Canterbury nearly stung by Taniwha
Fri, 12 Sep 2008 15:25
A solitary Tim Bateman try saved Canterbury's blushes as they scraped past Northland at Okara Park, Whangarei in their Air New Zealand Cup match in Friday.
A clutch of missed opportunities and some dubious officiating nearly caused a shock upset, but in the end Canterbury just did enough to bag the victory.
It took the visitors less than three minutes to score their first try, when inside centre Tim Bateman stepped well to reach the try-line for Canterbury.
No-one was to know that Bateman's score would be the last time that Canterbury would score points in the match, especially after flyhalf Colin Slade missed the conversion.
Bateman was again in the thick of things when his last-gasp tackle stopped a certain Northland try just short of the line.
The home side opened their account in the 14th minute through flyhalf David Holwell, who slotted a penalty to reduce the deficit to 3-5.
Holwell could well have given his team the lead a few minutes later, but his attempt went wide.
Canterbury then spurned a number of opportunities. Their failings were partly of their own making, although referee Chris Pollack had a negative influence on the match as he proceeded to halt any kind of flow with some unnecessary whistling.
Northland pushed hard just before half-time, but the Cantabrians managed to weather the storm and go into the break 5-3 to the good.
Amazingly the second half saw no scoring from either side, despite a spirited period of attacking play by Northland early on.
Holwell missed yet another chance to give his side the lead in the 65th minute, when he pushed a long-range penalty attempt wide.
Both teams seemed to get nervous with the result in the balance, and Canterbury tightened up their attack-from-anywhere tactics, opting to reduce the risks of Northland hitting them on the counter-attack.
The Cantabs started kicking for territory, and the game became somewhat of a stalemate as both teams switched to caution mode.
Canterbury had a magnificent chance to put the result beyond doubt in the 77th minute, but contrived to lose the ball over the try-line in the tackle.
Northland were desperate for three points in the final moments of the match, but they just couldn't generate that moment of inspiration to engineer a massive upset, as Canterbury held out for a low-scoring win.
Scorers:
For Northland:
Pen: Holwell
For Canterbury:
Try: Bateman
Teams:
Northland: 15 Jared Payne, 14 Damien Fakafanua, 13 Aiden Dewes, 12 Derek Carpenter, 11 Fetu'u Vainikolo, 10 David Holwell, 9 James Rodley, 8 Justin Collins (captain), 7 Joel McKenty, 6 Jon Cocker, 5 Marty Veale, 4 Dan Goodwin, 3 Jason Hammond, 2 Francis Smith, 1 Tevita Mailau.
Replacements: 16 Tyler Ashworth, 17
Ross Wright, 18 Roy Griffin, 19 Blair Urlich, 20 Brenton Helleur, 21 Ash Moeke, 22 Mike Davis.
Canterbury: 15 Paul Williams (captain), 14 Scott Hamilton, 13 Adam Whitelock, 12 Tim Bateman, 11 James Paterson, 10 Colin Slade, 9 Steve Alfeld, 8 Mose Tuiali'i, 7 George Whitelock, 6 Hayden Hopgood, 5 Isaac Ross, 4 Michael Paterson, 3 Owen Franks, 2 Tii Paulo, 1 Wyatt Crockett.
Replacements: 16 Steve Fualau, 17 Peter Borlase, 18 James Broadhurst, 19 Kieran Read, 20 Andrew Ellis, 21 Stephen Brett, 22 Hamish Gard.
Referee: Chris Pollock
Television match official: Steve Walsh
