PHOTO
The tenure was short. The Otago Spirit lost the JJ Stewart Trophy when it was outplayed by Canterbury on Saturday.
Canterbury moved to the top of the women's national championship table with a bonus-point win at the North Ground.
Otago held the JJ Stewart Trophy, the Ranfurly Shield of New Zealand women's rugby, for just one week after ending Auckland's 19-year reign.
Otago coach Marty Gray acknowledged the Spirit was beaten by a better team.
''Canterbury was just too good on the day. They put a lot of phases together and outnumbered us in the end.
''We couldn't keep up with the pace of the game,'' he said.
The trophy is at stake in home games during the round robin and Canterbury will be defending it against Manawatu and Wellington in the next two weeks.
Canterbury has pushed Otago out of the top spot and leads the national championship with 19 points, followed by Otago and Auckland on 18, Manawatu 16, Wellington 12, Waikato 10, Counties-Manukau 7 and Taranaki 0.
Otago still has a chance to make the final but must win its last two games, against Counties-Manukau and Manawatu.
Canterbury had four Black Ferns - prop Stephanie Te Ohaere-Fox, No 8 Casey Robertson, halfback Kendra Cocksedge and fullback Amiria Rule - and they all made a significant contribution to the win.
Other players to stand out were first five-eighth Charntay Poko and pacy wings Erica Prescott and Olivia Bird, both of whom scored two tries.
Otago's only area of dominance was in the scrum, which pushed Canterbury off the ball on occasions. Props Pip Love and Gemma Tuhega had strong games.
But the Spirit failed to use this advantage because the ball distribution by the backline was sloppy.
The only player to test the Canterbury defence was fullback Anika Tiplady, who scored all Otago's points with a try and two penalty goals.
Captain Angie Sisifa, the best of the forwards, led from the front and spearheaded a tenacious Otago defence that kept the Spirit in the game until the last 10 minutes.
There were good individual efforts but Otago lacked team cohesion and its defensive effort lacked co-ordination and was too passive.
A brilliant individual try by Tiplady, when she followed up her own clearing kick downfield, put pressure on the Canterbury defence and grabbed the ball to score close to the posts, gave Otago an 8-7 lead at the break.
Otago still had a chance to win the game when it trailed Canterbury by just three points, 14-11, after 30 minutes in the second half. But Canterbury tightened the screws in the last 10 minutes when it scored three late tries.
Georgia Mason (16) became one of the youngest players to represent Otago when she came on in the second spell.
In other games, Auckland beat Taranaki 53-14, Wellington beat Counties-Manukau 42-29 and Manawatu beat Waikato 19-13.
Women's championship
The scores
Canterbury 33
Erica Prescott 2, Olivia Bird 2, Tara Horsnell tries; Kendra Cocksedge 4 con
Otago 11
Anika Tiplady try, 2 pen
Halftime: Otago 8-7