Otago players celebrate their win against Auckland during
an ITM Cup rugby match, Eden Park, Auckland. Photo by NZPA.
Otago broke a 35-year drought at Eden Park when they
downed Auckland 32-25 in a national provincial championship
rugby match in Auckland tonight.
Down by six at halftime, Otago were a transformed team in the
second half and ran in three tries in 10 minutes to lay the
base for a solid win.
With three games in seven days, Auckland coach Mark Anscombe
made a raft of changes from the team which lost 33-40 to
Canterbury on Sunday.
Captain Daniel Braid, Josh Townsend, Chris Lowrey, Gareth
Anscombe and Hadleigh Parkes all backed up, but the rest of
the team were all fresh.
Sharpest of all looked former All Blacks winger Joe Rokocoko,
who mesmerised the Otago defence 12 minutes into the game
after fullback Glenn Dickson gave Otago an early 3-0 lead
through a well-struck 45m penalty.
Auckland capitalised on some good work at the breakdown with
quick ball to Anscombe, who offloaded to Braid. A quick
recycle saw the ball shovelled wide where Rokocoko surfaced
on the blindside wing to waltz through the Otago defence and
score.
Anscombe converted, and although Otago responded with another
Dickson penalty to trail 6-7, Rokocoko again unstoppable 20
minutes in as he ran outside Otago prop Kees Meeuws to touch
down unopposed.
A penalty apiece saw Auckland go into the halftime break with
a 15-9 lead.
Substitute flanker TJ Ioane triggered the Otago comeback with
an opportunist's try from a loose Auckland lineout 15 minutes
into the second half.
Dickson sunk the conversion, another penalty, then finished
off a hectic five minutes when he latched on to a Tony Brown
cut-out pass to score in the corner.
Barely two minutes later, winger Buxton Popoali'i made it
three with a sizzling 60m run down the left after collecting
an ill-advised Auckland chip kick.
Auckland finally started to find field position, and pulled
one back with 10 minutes to go when replacement prop Pauliasi
Manu powered over to haul back the margin to seven.
But despite testing the Otago defence mightily in the last
stages, Auckland couldn't break through.
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