Taranaki created some separation between the Premiership's top four and the rest of the pack after cruising to a crushing 41-0 home win over Waikato.
The defending champions tonight earned their fourth straight victory after starting the ITM Cup season with a trio of defeats, consolidating their position among the playoff places with three games to come.
With Tasman and Canterbury setting the pace and Auckland right on the front-runners' heals, Taranaki's bonus-point triumph lifted them to fourth and forged a nine-point advantage over fifth-place Waikato. And to make matters worse for the Mooloo men, the duck was their first in provincial rugby since 1985, snapping an incredible streak of 297 matches.
Taranaki's win followed the pattern they've set all season -- they started slow and struggled to find fluidity in the opening half hour before rounding into form as the match progressed. The champs have managed an average of 5.1 points in the first 30 minutes of matches during this campaign, meaning a pair of penalties from Cody Rei tonight represented a positive result.
Taranaki remained patient instead of panicking despite the blunt edge to their attack, but that might have changed had Waikato received a little more luck from the TMO midway through the half, with the decision to scratch Regan Ware's superb solo burst seeming harsh at best and hopeless at worst.
And to add salt to the wound, the denial became something of a turning point, with Taranaki soon seizing control through two tries in three minutes.
The first came when Latu Va'eno bucked the trend of a half that featured a surfeit of aimless kicking, launching a quick counter that was finished by Charlie Ngatai, while the second arrived when Taranaki turned down three points and were eventually rewarded with a Seta Tamanivalu try.
The home side were straight back on to attack after the break, finding a third through Angus Taavao to essentially kill off the contest, before substitute Sean Wainui secured what could prove an important bonus point.
Taranaki 41 (Ngatai, Tamanivalu, Taavao, Wainui, Elliot tries; Rei 2 pens, 4 cons), Waikato 0. HT: 20-0.
