Spirit win secures a home semi

Otago dispatched Tasman 48-7 in Blenheim on Saturday to clinch a home semifinal in the Championship tier of the Farah Palmer Cup.

The comfortable win enabled Otago to leapfrog Hawke’s Bay in the standings.

Before the final round-robin matches, Hawke’s Bay had a four-point buffer over Otago and could have locked down a home semifinal had it beaten Manawatu.

But the Premiership side proved too strong at home, winning 22-10.

Hawke’s Bay will now have to travel south to play Otago, while Wellington will host North Harbour in the other semifinal.

Wellington thumped Taranaki 118-0 and will start as a heavy favourite.

The Spirit will be confident as well. It beat Hawke’s Bay 31-12 earlier in the season.

Coach Scott Manson challenged his side to take the game to Tasman and his side responded. The Spirit led 33-0 at halftime.

"I set a challenge for them to score 30 or 40 points and they did do that," Manson said.

"Once we scored we got on a roll.

"Our defensive pressure was really good. We turned a lot of ball over and scored from that."

Black Ferns midfielder Kilisitina Moata’ane was a handful in the midfield.

She injured her ankle during the preseason and made her playing return from the bench during the 68-0 win against Taranaki last month.

She started this weekend and made a big impact with her hard and straight running.

"She straightened everything on attack and distributed well. And on defence she was coming up hard and forcing them back."

Prop Isla Pringle had a strong game and first five-eighth Rosie Kelly attacked the line and ran the ball back well.

"Her tactical kicking was really good as well."

Manson said his side was thrilled to have secured a home playoff match. Now the challenge was to work on its offence.

Most of the tries against Tasman were created through defensive pressure and Manson would like to see his side be a bit more expansive.

"I think a few of those details went out the window in the second half [against Tasman]. If we do that against Hawke’s Bay then we are not going to score enough points."

 

Farah Palmer Cup
The scores

Otago     48

Greer Muir 2, Isla Pringle, Kilisitina Moata’ane, Rosie Kelly, Tegan Hollows, Cheyenne Cunningham, Sammy Wong tries, Kelly 4 con

Tasman     7

Anna Bradley try, Hayley Hutana con. Halftime: 33-0.

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