Wellington relegated in NPC

 

The result unfortunately confirms the worst for Wellington fans, with the 2013 runners-up now confirmed as the relegated Premiership side, meaning that the Lions will play in the Championship during the 2015 campaign.

 

Initially it looked as if the visitors were going to give Hawke’s Bay a tough battle with Chris Boyd’s team boasting a 9-7 lead until the 37th minute of the first half.

 

There was patience on display from Wellington, perhaps the sight of the Shield on the sidelines was inspiration, but the bottom placed team in the Premiership was making the home province look ordinary in the opening exchanges.

 

However a dangerous tackle from Vaea Fafita led to the lock leaving the field with just a couple of minutes to play in the opening stanza.

 

When he returned, the Magpies had scored 14 points and moments later added to that tally.

 

Meanwhile, Auckland made up for recent frustrations in NPC Cup clashes against Waikato when unleashing a 60-19 record scoring performance against their old rivals in the wet at Eden Park on Thursday.

 

With nine tries to three, Auckland also achieved the greatest victory in contests between the sides, surpassing their own 50-4 win in 1984 and Waikato's 59-11 win in 2004.

 

Waikato didn't get their traffic calculations right and were caught up, not arriving at the ground until 18.50 – and they played like it.

 

By comparison, Auckland were unstoppable. With lock Patrick Tuipolotu inspiring in the tight, and Joe Edwards, Peter Saili and Sean Polwart triumphant in the loose, and a promising debut performance by hooker Gafatasi Su'a Auckland looked a more complete package.

 

As if the forward power wasn't enough, wings George Moala and Ben Lam were destructive every time they handled the ball.

 

Waikato had few moments to savour with handling issues all night minimising their chances. 

 

Finally, Northland enhanced their semifinal chances by dominating a thrilling national rugby championship match 58-27 against North Harbour in Whangarei.

 

Northland had too much vigour up front for their neighbours with a back row superbly led by Dan Pryor dominating the breakdowns and big lock Shane Neville bringing some set piece solidity.

 

With that sort of platform, halves Sonatane Takulau and Daniel Hawkins were able to dictate play and get the upper hand amongst two young and enterprising backlines, finishing with six tries.

 

The result was a dagger blow to the playoff hopes of the improving North Harbour side.

 

They couldn't use the momentum of recent upsets over Canterbury and Hawke's Bay to push on and will now need other results to go their way.

 

 

 

Tries: Evans, O'Connor, Tongia 2, Lamborn

Cons: West 4

Pens: Berquist 

 

Tries: Proctor

Pens: Ripia 3

 

 

Tries: Poluleuligaga', Visinia, Su'a, Edwards, Moala 2, Anscombe, Whetton, Gibson 

Cons: Anscombe 4, Hickey 2 

Pen: Anscombe, Hickey 2  

 

Tries: Uhila, Lienert-Brown, Faiva 

Cons: McKenzie 2 

 

 

Tries: Wright, Wright 3, Macilai-Tori, Pryor 

Cons: Hawkins 5 

Pens: Hawkins 6

 

Tries: Pleasants-Tate, McGahan, Robinson, Thompson 

Cons: McGahan, Halangahu 

Pen: McGahan