Otago needed just 10 minutes to beat Manawatū 29-27 in Palmerston North on Saturday night — the last 10 minutes. They stumbled through 70 minutes of some pretty terrible rugby. They dropped a lot of ball. They blew a lot of lineouts. But, boy, they have a lot of ticker. And captain fantastic Christian Lio-Willie put on his cape and dragged his side back into the contest with a muscular performance at No 8. Let’s review the tape. They trailed 27-12 with 10 minutes left. This one was lost. It looked like it was not going to be their night. Kieran McClea, who made a big impact when he came on at halfback, made a lovely dart and got a delayed pass to Jae Broomfield, who muscled his way over. But the try was ruled out. Lio-Willie was adjudged to have knocked the ball on in a tackle leading up to the try. It looked awfully like the defender had knocked it out of his grasp, though. That could have been the moment Otago put their heads down and accepted a loss. Nope. Something finally went right, instead. Jona Nareki sliced through at pace and got an inside ball to McClea, who dotted down with nine minutes remaining. Lio-Willie set up another with a bust up the guts. The ball was eventually swung left and Lucas Casey dived over in the corner. Lio-Willie hauled his side back up the field. Nareki tossed a wonderful offload to Sam Nemec-Vial and he scored in the corner to complete a dramatic comeback. Manawatū were devastated. But they did the same to Southland a week earlier. “That’s a good feeling, eh,’’ Lio-Willie told the Sky Sports commentary team. “To be honest, we made it hard on ourselves. “But probably the difference was our work rate. We backed that and we were lucky to get away with the win, to be honest.’’ Very. But they picked up five competition points and march on. They actually made a decent start. Josh Timu made a half break from his first touch and Joseva Tamani followed up with a powerful carry. They were good early signs for the visitors. But a couple of handling errors handed back possession to Manawatū. Taniela Filimone sold a dummy and burst through. Otago snuffed out that attack, but the home side swooped on an Otago mistake. Halfback Jordi Viljoen slipped in behind the defence and George Worboys was on hand to finish off. But the home side blotted their copybook when second five James Tofa was caught reaching into the ruck and trying to rake the ball back. He was asked to take a seat for 10 minutes and Otago pounced. Fullback Nemec-Vial slipped past a couple of defenders from about eight metres out. Despite being a man down, Manawatū swung back on to attack. Rory Woods made a lunge at the line in the corner, but Nareki and Nic Souchon blocked that effort. Nareki got himself sent to the bin moments later for joining the ruck from the side. Manawatū capitalised immediately. Former Alhambra-Union and Otago winger John Tapueluelu went over in the other corner. The Turbos added a penalty just before the break to take a 17-7 lead into halftime. It was a very forgettable opening 40 minutes from Otago, best summed up as a series of fumbles with some ill-discipline mixed in for variety. Otago were restored to 15 players shortly after the resumption. But they found themselves huddled under the posts watching the replay of Filimone step off his right and run in from 30m out. Otago’s lineout problems returned. Hooker Henry Bell, who clocked his 50th game for the province, came on for Souchon and struggled to connect with his jumpers. He redeemed himself quickly, though. He found Will Stodart at the front of the lineout, tucked himself into the boot of a drive and dived over. Worboys connected with a penalty in the 63rd minute to push the lead back out to 15. The drama started shortly after that. In the other games, Canterbury held on to beat Bay of Plenty 33-28 to retain the Ranfurly Shield, while Hawke’s Bay prevailed 44-31 against Auckland at Eden Park. NPC The scores Otago 29 Sam Nemec-Vial 2, Henry Bell, Kieran McClea, Lucas Casey tries; Cameron Millar con, Patrick Pelligrini con Manawatū 27 George Worboys, John Tapueluelu, Taniela Filimone tries; Worboys 3 con, 2 pen Halftime: 17-7 Manawaū
