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From: doc@docdevl.actrix.gen.nz (Paul Waite)
Subject: NZ NPC
Organization: P&P Wellington, New Zealand
Message-ID: 
Date: Mon, 12 Sep 1994 07:35:06 GMT
Lines: 209

.                                                         
  |    |          _________________________       |    |   NZ NPC
  |    |         /oooooooooooooooooooooooo/\      |    |   * Results
  |____|       /ooooooooooooooooooooooooo/ |      |____|   * Reports
  |    |     /oooooooooooooooooooooooooo/  |      |    |   * News
  |    |    |~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|   |      |    |
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
         The New Zealand National Provincial Championship

             This article features short reports news,
              and results in the NPC in New Zealand.
                 Weekend of 10-11th September 1994
                            --====--

HEADLINES
~~~~~~~~~
A hopeless Wellington performance against an Auckland team which
hardly had to try resulted in a deserved 52-30 loss.

Waikato dented Counties dreams of a semifinal placing when they
won 15-8 in a mediocre game dominated by penalties.

North Harbour were flattered by a 34-16 result over King Country
with 14 of their points coming in the final 5 minutes.

Canterbury beat a spirited Taranaki side by 23-18. Although they
had a generous advantage in possession they made too many errors.

North Harbour now top the NZNPC first division table, but have
played one more match than 2nd placed Auckland. Canterbury
move into the top four with Counties, but Otago look favourite
to oust Counties for a semi-final spot.

Taranaki now look to be reasonably safe in the first division
with their single point gained against Canterbury.


MATCH REPORTS: 1st DIVISION
===========================

Wellington 30  Auckland 52
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In the first half the basic handling and judgmental errors made by
Wellington were a complete embarassment to their fans. Auckland must
have been too busy laughing, because the score was only 32-3 at
half-time with 5 tries. Eroni Clarke scored twice in two minutes,
other tries were scored by Michael Jones in the 11th minute, Shane
Howarth, Waisake Sotutu, Carlos Spencer, and Lee Stensness just
before the final whistle.

Wellington scored 4 tries in a better second half to put a flimsy
disguise on a truly dreadful performance. The most interesting point
in the match for Wellingtonians was the re-arrangment in the back-line
due to injury. Elton Moncrieff came on as half-back, and John Preston
played at first-five, with Simon Mannix moving out to second-five.
Preston slotted in perfectly and looked (as many think) a natural
in this position.


Counties 8  Waikato 15
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Counties hopes of a semifinal place were given a significant dent when
they went down at home 8-15 to Waikato. They were in line for a single
point for being within the 7 point margin but for a penalty goal by
Mathew Cooper in the dying minutes.

"We can't turn over ball like we did here and expect to win games in
first division", coach Ross Cooper said after the game. The only
Counties points came from a break down the right by Danny Love who
passed inside for halfback Michael Scott to score after only 14 minutes.

Counties then allowed themselves to become distracted by some perhaps
arguable refereeing discisions, and infringed even more. Waikato
had the advantage in the forwards, with Duane Monkley playing particularly
well.


North Harbour 34  King Country 16
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A 14-point burst in the last 5 minutes gave Harbour a flattering win over
King Country at Onewa Domain on Saturday.

Strong KC forward play led by Henry Morgan kept them on attack early
and let Hutana Coffin get two penalty goals. Then panic passing among
the Harbour backs let Philippe Rayasi grab a loose ball and scamper 60m
to put King Country 13 points ahead.

Harbour struck back with 2 tries scored from quick-taps, catching KC
player napping, but a 3rd penalty goal by Coffin made it 16-10 to
Country at half-time.

It took Harbour another 12 minutes and another tap-pen at close range
bringing a try under the posts to gain the lead at 17-16. Warren Burton
nailed a penalty to make it 20-16. The bonus point was snatched from
King Country in the last few minutes when Harbour scored twice more
to bring it to 34-16.


Taranaki 18  Canterbury 23
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Canterbury stuttered there way to an unconvincing 23-18 win against the
always spirited Taranaki side at Rugby Park, New Plymouth on Sunday.

Winning a wealth of possession Canty made a constant stream of errors
as they struggled to a 12-3 half-time lead. Only a late try by centre
Tabai Matson sealed the win.



MATCH REPORTS: 2nd DIVISION
===========================

Northland 59  Nelson Bays 12
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Nelson Bays tactics of tap-and-run provided much of the
entertainment in this match, together with their snappy running
and good backing up, but they just didn't have the power or
the finish to unduly trouble Northland.

Northland took charge with a couple of tries late in the first half
and led by 23-5 at the break. Big kicking first-five Warren Johnston
scored 20 points before going off 15 minutes into the 2nd half with an
injured shoulder. They ran in 8 tries, two by skipper and flanker 
Glenn Taylor, and one each by Johnston, fullback Tony Monaghan, No.8
Graeme  Hilton-Jones, centre Milton Going and wings David Manako and
Stormin' Norman Berryman.


Bay of Plenty 45  Manawatu 35
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
An efficient BOP side made easy work of beating a disappointing
Manawatu. BOP continued their long run of success by scoring
6 tries to 4. It was Manawatu's 3rd successive loss to the
leading 2nd division sides.


Horowhenua 22  Hawkes Bay 67
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Playing away from home in Levin, Hawkes Bay had too much forward
power for Horowhenua, scoring 9 tries to 3 in a 67-22 thrashing.

The match which marked NZ Sevens player Dallas Seymour's first
representative game since July was never in any doubt as the
Bay established forward dominance and enabled loose forwards
Duston Watss, Seymour, and Gordon Falcon to control the flow
of the game totally.

Five of the tries came from the large pack, Falcon getting across
for two.


South Canterbury 41  Wairarapa-Bush 21
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bush second-five Neil Foote may have nightmare about the try he
bombed in his side's loss at Timaru. Foot, only recently moved
from halfback bungled a certain try in the 32nd minute, losing
his balance over the dead ball line.



RESULTS TABLES
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
__________________________________________
1st DIVISION  P   W   D   L    F    A  Pts
N Harbour     6   5   -   1  216  126  20
Auckland      5   4   -   1  218  104  17
Counties      6   4   -   2  148  108  16
Canterbury    5   4   -   1  135  121  16
Otago         5   3   -   2  142  117  13
Waikato       5   2   -   3  134  115   9
Wellington    5   2   -   3  115  169   8
Taranaki      6   -   -   6  126  226   2
King Country  5   -   -   5   78  232   0

__________________________________________
2nd DIVISION  P   W   D   L    F    A  Pts
Hawkes Bay    6   6   -   -  318  135  24
Southland     5   5   -   -  180  112  20
Northland     6   4   -   2  273  127  16
Bay of Plenty 5   3   -   2  209  145  13
Manawatu      5   2   -   3  168  142   9
S Canterbury  6   2   -   4  173  211   9
Nelson Bays   5   2   -   3  108  195   8
Horowhenua    5   -   -   5  106  211   1
Wairarapa     5   -   -   5   74  291   0


NEXT WEEK
~~~~~~~~~
The matches being played next week in the first and second divisions
of the NPC are as follows:

1st Division
Waikato            vs    North Harbour     Hamilton
King Country       vs    Wellington        Taumaranui
Auckland           vs    Otago             Auckland
Canterbury         vs    Counties          Christchurch (Sunday)

2nd Division
Bay of Plenty      vs    Horowhenua        Rotorua
Hawkes Bay         vs    Southland         Napier
Wairarapa Bush     vs    Manawatu          Masterton
Nelson Bays        vs    South Canterbury  Motueka

-- 
____________________________________________________________________________
Paul Waite                                         doc@docdevl.actrix.gen.nz
Wellington, New Zealand                                       +64-4-233-1764
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