Tasman secured their first ever win over Canterbury today when they just held out the fast-finishing visitors 27-25 at Trafalgar Park, Nelson.
Canterbury trailed 24-10 at halftime but improved significantly in the second half.
They began well enough – scoring a try through wing Telusa Veainu after six minutes. A great scrum had Canterbury on the front foot and from a midfield ruck Stephen Brett kicked through and Veainu was virtually unchallenged when he raced on to the ball.
Canterbury’s scrum was powerful throughout, though they couldn’t make the most of this set piece as the referee Nick Briant often found some illegality in dominant prop Wyatt Crockett’s play.
Straight from the kick-off Tasman responded with a converted try of their own. The ball was fumbled and from the resulting scrum the two Tasman Marshall’s, James and Tom, tied the Canterbury defence in knots and Tom went over.
Another Canterbury mistake when a pass went to no one resulted in another try to Tasman through wing James Kamana.
A Steve Alfeld penalty put Tasman up 17-7 with only 25 minutes on the clock.
Worse was to come for Canterbury when Sean Maitland, who looked dangerous throughout, was put into space by No8 Ash Parker but the fullback threw a forward pass to Isaac Ross who would have dotted down.
Another Tasman try put the home team 24-7 up and alarm bells were ringing for Canterbury. Some weak defence around the fringes close to the line meant hooker Francis Smith went over.
Colin Slade missed a penalty just before halftime but managed to put things right from 40m to close the gap to 24-10.
The message to Canterbury at halftime would have been simple – keep hold of the ball. Too often the visitors made good breaks but squandered possession straight after.
Some of the tackling was sub-standard too. The Tasman boys were fired up for this one as Canterbury knew they would be, but the Red and Blacks didn’t stop them in their tracks as they should have.
Halfback Andy Ellis was introduced after halftime and shortly after Pete Borlase came on for Andrew Olorenshaw.
Centre Robbie Fruean was sinbinned after 47 minutes for a ruck infringement. Alfeld kicked the resulting penalty to make it 27-10 but Canterbury upped their intensity and rattled on 15 unanswered points.
First, Ellis scored a converted try after a good break by Maitland and then hooker Steve Fualau (pictured) scored, following a good run by Veainu down the left wing. Canterbury had numbers on the right and George Whitelock put the big hooker away to score in the corner.
A Slade penalty after 67 minutes made the score 27-25 and the momentum had shifted Canterbury’s way. Unfortunately, they couldn’t carry it on.
A couple of handling errors gifted possession Tasman’s way in the final 10 minutes and the home side’s scrum, under pressure for most of the game, did well to re-set several set pieces, thus wasting more precious minutes.
No8 Nasi Manu, added some impetus when he came on for Parker. He will be in the mix to play Auckland next weekend and Canterbury will need to up their game considerably if they want to beat their old rivals.
Loose forwards Matt Todd and George Whitelock were busy as usual for Canterbury and Ellis again made a big impact.
Tasman – Tries: Tom Marshall, James Kamana, Francis Smith. Cons: Steve Alfeld 3. Pens: Alfeld 2.
Canterbury – Tries: Telusa Veainu, Andy Ellis, Steve Fualau. Cons: Colin Slade 2. Pens: Slade 2.
HT: Tasman 24-10.
Kickers:
Slade: 4 from 6
Alfeld: 5 from 7
Canterbury:
1. Wyatt Crockett
2. Steve Fualau
3. Andrew Olorenshaw (Peter Borlase 46th)
4. Luke Romano (Rob Verbakel 63rd)
5. Isaac Ross
6. Matt Todd
7. George Whitelock (c)
8. Ash Parker (Nasi Manu 46th)
9. Takerei Norton (Andy Ellis ht)
10. Colin Slade
11. Telusa Veainu
12. Stephen Brett
13. Robbie Fruean
14. Sam Monaghan
15. Sean Maitland
Reserves not used:
16. Paul Ngauamo
21. Robbie Flynn
22. Patrick Osborne