Impressive Spirit lock in home semifinal

Otago Spirit fullback Olivia Fowler leaves Taranaki defender Hayley Coogan in her wake as she takes off to score during their big win at Tahuna Park on Saturday. PHOTO: GERARD O’BRIEN

The Otago Spirit have locked in a home Farah Palmer Cup semifinal after a dominant 77-12 win over the Taranaki Whio on Saturday.

It was an impressive victory, Otago scoring 13 tries in very windy conditions at Tahuna Park.

It was the Spirit’s fifth win of the Championship to leave them unbeaten after the round robin.

They finish as the top seeds in the second tier and will now host fourth seeds North Harbour in a semifinal this Saturday.

Northland — who were relegated from the Premiership last season — booked second spot after a 22-13 win over the Wellington Pride.

Those two teams will meet again in the other Championship semifinal this weekend after they finished as the No 2 and No 3 seeds respectively.

The Spirit charged to a 27-0 lead in the opening 22 minutes on Saturday when hard-working flanker Sarah Jones, nippy halfback Abigail Paton and outside backs Te Atawhai Campbell, Olivia Fowler and Jamie Church all scored tries.

It was impressive, but the Whio put up a big fight, despite the lopsided score.

The Spirit charged ahead to hold a 39-5 lead at the break to effectively seal the game and wrap up the top spot for the semifinals.

Campbell, who made her first start after returning from injury, scored her second try just after halftime, and lock Leila Hill — who is having a standout season in the second row — added another.

They worked in some other nice tries, keeping the ball in hand and throwing it around.

Cheyenne Cunningham made her return from injury off the bench and was handy with the boot, banging over three conversions.

Jones had another impressive game, scoring a brace, and Madison Flutey also made her first start at first five and was solid.

In two one-sided Premiership games, Auckland thumped Hawke’s Bay 81-5 and Waikato beat Bay of Plenty 88-5.

Manawatu, who were only elevated to the Premiership after winning the Championship last season, are top of the table after beating Counties-Manukau 40-26. Manawatu have won four of their five games in an impressive season.

In the last game of the round, North Harbour sealed fourth spot in the Championship with a 42-22 win over Tasman yesterday.