Otago to host Bay of Plenty for place in NPC final

As well as retaining the Ranfurly Shield, Otago are in the semifinals, and two wins away from breaking a 27-year drought. PHOTO: STEPHEN JAQUIERY

Otago are the red-hot team but their NPC opposition will be steaming into town.

The weekend’s results confirmed Otago would play the Bay of Plenty Steamers in one NPC semifinal at Forsyth Barr Stadium on Friday night.

The other will follow on Saturday between Canterbury and Hawke’s Bay.

Otago did their part by elevating Cameron Millar to near-immortal status as he kicked a long-range penalty to seal a 44-41 win over Waikato in the quarterfinal on Friday night.

Ideally, Counties-Manukau would have upset Canterbury in Christchurch in the fourth and final quarterfinal yesterday.

That would have turned Otago into the No 1 seeds and given them an opportunity to host the final — assuming they won their home semifinal.

Canterbury, however, found a way to win a barn-stormer.

It was 15-15 at fulltime after a bruising clash — Chay Fihaki missed an audacious late penalty attempt from 70m with the wind behind him — but the Cantabs pushed on to a 23-15 win after extra time.

Both quarterfinals on Saturday were relatively clear-cut.

Bay of Plenty scored three unanswered second-half tries to beat Tasman 27-7 in Tauranga.

Hawke’s Bay then produced an immense defensive effort to hold off Taranaki 26-12 in Napier.

Otago can still host the NPC final as they seek their first title in 27 years.

They just need to beat Bay of Plenty, and hope the Magpies can swoop into Christchurch and upset the table-toppers.

However it all plays out, there is going to be a (relatively) fresh name on the NPC trophy.

Otago have not won the title since 1998, Bay of Plenty were narrowly beaten finalists last year but have not been champions since the inaugural season in 1976, Canterbury’s last title was in 2017, and Hawke’s Bay were the last winners of the old second division (2005) but have never been first division champions.