Taranaki will enjoy home advantage in the semifinals of the ITM Cup.
Their 38-22 victory over the woeful Wellington at Westpac Stadium today meant Colin Cooper's side will definitely finish inside the top two.
With one round of matches left in the regular season both Taranaki and Tasman have 37 competition points and sit atop the Premiership.
Next week's games will decide the make-up of the top four with Canterbury and Auckland set to be the other semifinalists, although they will be forced to go on the road.
Despite eventually being well beaten today, this was a different Wellington side. They managed to make their tackles, string some phases together in attack and keep their discipline during the opening exchanges.
Taranaki dominated the territory and possession stakes for the first spell but weren't able to make the most of their opportunities as silly errors cost them.
The Lions showed a rare desperation on defence, which helped their cause as the home side toiled against a strong wind during the opening 40 minutes.
Tries to Matt Proctor and Marvin Karawana gave Wellington an unexpected lead at the break as they entered the sheds with a 14-11 advantage.
After an exchange of penalties, Wellington held a 17-14 lead after 57 minutes before the wheels fell off for the Lions as Taranaki struck twice in quick succession.
Tries to Waisake Naholo and Chris Smylie, largely on the back of good work from centre Seta Tamanivalu, helped the visitors ease out to a handy lead.
When the ever-impressive Blade Thomson then crashed over, the Amber and Blacks were up 31-17 and Wellington's hopes of a maiden win in 2014 were cooked.
This was another miserable result for the soon-to-be-relegated Lions who will round out their season when they host North Harbour in the capital on Saturday in what will be their last chance to grab a win.
Taranaki 38 (Waisake Naholo 2, Jamison Gibson-Park, Chris Smylie, Blade Thomson tries; Marty McKenzie 3 pen, 2 con) Wellington 22 (Matt Proctor 2, Marvin Karawana tries; Willie Ripia pen, 2 con)
- by Daniel Richardson of APNZ
