1995 NPC Results: finals
From: Paul Waite
NZ NPC
RUGBY IN 1995 _________________________________________
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THE NEW ZEALAND NATIONAL PROVINCIAL CHAMPIONSHIP
--====--
This article features short reports, news,
and results from NPC matches played in New Zealand
for the weekend of 14-15th October, 1995
THE NPC FINALS
HEADLINES
~~~~~~~~~
Auckland stole the NPC Championship away from a deserving Otago
side in the last few minutes of an exciting and tense final by
23-19, having been made to look mediocre by a competetive and
skilful opponent for most of the game.
Taranaki beat Northland 22-18 to win the Second Division NPC
Trophy, and return to the First Division at the first attempt.
Thames Valley won the Third Division NPC Trophy in a decisive
manner, walloping Poverty Bay 47-8 at Paeroa.
MATCH REPORTS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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### DIVISION 1 ####################################################
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AUCKLAND 23 OTAGO 19 Half-time: 10-13
at Auckland
Auckland tries: M Carter, Penalty try
kicks: A Cashmore(2 conv, 3 pen)
Otago tries: J Wilson, P Cooke
kicks: T Brown(3 pen)
Teams Auckland Otago
~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~
Age Hgt Kg Age Hgt Kg
15 Adrian Cashmore 22 1.83 89 Jeff Wilson 22 1.81 88
14 Waisake Sotutu 24 1.83 96 Paul Cooke 28 1.83 88
13 Eroni Clarke 26 1.86 90 Marc Ellis 24 1.78 87
12 Lee Stensness 24 1.82 84 John Leslie 24 1.85 91
11 James Kerr 20 1.93 93 Jason Wright 26 1.88 89
10 Carlos Spencer 20 1.80 88 Tony Brown 20 1.78 80
9 Tu Nu'uali'itia 29 1.74 86 Stu Forster 26 1.70 75
8 Zinzan Brooke 30 1.90 99 Arran Pene 27 1.91 110
7 Mark Carter 26 1.88 89 Josh Kronfeld 24 1.86 92
6 Dylan Mika 23 1.95 108 Taine Randell 20 1.87 100
5 Jason Chandler 25 2.01 119 Jamie Joseph 25 1.96 105
4 Robin Brooke 28 1.96 109 Lio Falaniko 25 1.96 109
3 Olo Brown 27 1.83 105 Nick Moore 25 1.85 115
2 Sean Fitzpatrick 32 1.83 105 Anton Oliver 20 1.85 108
1 Craig Dowd 25 1.88 114 Mike Mika 25 1.85 115
Coach Graham Henry Gordon Hunter
Referee: Colin Hawke (South Canterbury)
Conditions: Overcast/sunny, breeze favoured Otago in the first
half, soft underfoot.
It takes an unusual match for the following assessment to be made,
but in the end Auckland stole away as definitely undeserving winners
of this match and, as a result, New Zealand National Provincial
Champions for the third year running.
In terms of contribution to this game Otago stood head and shoulders
above an Auckland outfit who were, for most of the match, made to
look fairly mediocre with their lineout dominace neutralized, their
loose forwards outplayed, their much-vaunted scrum dominance minimized
by collosal work from Arran Pene off the back, and their backs not
clicking except in sporadic bursts.
However, criticise them as we may, Auckland are always a strong team
and very hard to beat over the full 80 minutes, and they were never
put away by Otago. The 80-minute game told in the end with a few
Otago players making mistakes and straying from the territorial game
which had protected their lead for so long. This together with some
inspired kicking from Carlos Spencer earned the Aucks a scrum 4m
from the Otago line in the closing minutes of play, and the pressure
was too much, resulting in the winning penalty-try/conversion, and
the death of a brave brave effort from the men in blue.
Otago came out much more focussed on a particular game-plan than the
Aucklanders, who looked a little like they had soaked up too much
of their own publicity for their own good.
Within 3 minutes Otago first 5/8 Tony Brown put over a penalty from
wide on the right-hand side. The Otago forwards were obviously on
their mettle, and held their own in the tight. Surprisingly, they
also held their own in the lineout due in equal measure to pin-point
throwing from hooker Anton Oliver, excellent work from Jamie Joseph,
and a willingness to play Auckland one-on-one at the physical stuff.
In particular Robin Brooke was well neutralised and distracted at
lineout time.
After 5 minutes, Oliver was lucky not to be sent off when he punched
Craig Dowd in the mouth after a lineout. Dowd suffered the loss of
a few teeth, but the referee didn't see the first punch land.
At about the 10 minute mark Josh Kronfeld suffered a badly sprained
ankle, and had to leave the field. Then some strong Otago pressure
saw a lineout in the Auckland 22m. Spencer dropped the pass in goal
and Otago had a 5m scrum. The ball was freed to Marc Ellis quickly
and he put a lovely low kick across to the wing and in-goal area
for Jeff Wilson to race in and force. The try was not converted and
the score was 8-0 to Otago after 13 minutes.
Only a few minutes later more Otago pressure from some excellent
territorial kicking saw a an Auckland lineout inside their 22m
area on the right touchline. Otago won the ball and John Leslie
put in a huge cross-field kick to the left corner where Paul
Cooke made no mistake. Brown failed to convert once again to make
the score 13-0 to the Blues.
The two tries shocked Auckland and prevented them building any
confidence. Otago compounded this by nullifying them in the very
areas that they are held to be unbeatable. At scrum-time, Auckland
had the weight, however Otago are adept at recovering the ball
from a reversing or disrupted scrum, and Arran Pene inevitably
grabbed it and put in some collosal drives to go well over the
advantage line nearly every time. At lineout, Otago matched Auckland
and gained their share of possession, and at first 5/8 Tony Brown,
given room by the work of Pene, could direct some fine territorial
kicks to maintain control.
Just 5 minutes before half-time Adrian Cashmore slotted a penalty
after some previous indifferent kicking to put Auckland on the
board at 13-3.
Just before half-time Otago lost their way slightly and started to
run the ball in silly situations, instead of relying on Brown's
boot to keep them out of the danger area. This resulted in Auckland
gaining some important territory. From a ruck situation Mark Carter
got the ball for Auckland, saw Arran Pene slip over on a wet piece
of ground and took the gap for a gift try. Cashmore converted to
make it 13-10 to Otago.
Otago started the second half almost as well as they did the first.
A Paul Cooke chip kick and follow-up forced Adrian Cashmore to
carry the ball back into his own in-goal and give Otago the 5m
scrum. The ensuing Otago pressure was enough to cause a defender to
infringe at a ruck and Tony Brown potted the 3-pointer with only
3 minutes of the second half gone.
Some strong Auckland probing resulted in the Otago backline being
caught up offside and Cashmore replied in like manner 4 minutes
later. Tony Brown got a chance to slot his 3rd penalty 3 minutes
after that when Auckland halfback Tu Nu'uali'itia kicked at the
ball on Otago's side of the ruck. At 19-13 to Otago with 10 minutes
of the second half gone, it was still anyone's game.
There was no change in scoreline for a further 18 minutes. During this
time Otago handled everything that Auckland could muster in the
forwards and the backs, and it began to look as if it might be their
day after all.
With Auckland still plugging away a lineout in Otago's half resulted
in a penalty going Auckland's way. Cashmore obliged and there was
only 3 points in it at 19-16 to Otago with only 12 minutes to go.
A piece of (it has to be said) typical silliness from Jamie Joseph
caused a straightforward scrum to Otago to be turned into Joseph
being sin-binned for 5 minutes and a penalty to Auckland. Then an
Aucklander said something to the referee, who promptly reversed the
penalty. Brown missed, but took his time. By the end of this farcical
exchange there was only 8 minutes to play, and nobody watching had
any finger-nails left to bite on.
Otago then put themselves under unwanted pressure by failing to adhere
to the territorial kicking game when in their own half, and this in
effect cost them the game. Running the ball and getting into trouble
caused a turnover and a good kick saw a lineout being taken only 3m
from the Otago line. From a couple of rucks, the ball came out right
and Zinzan Brooke went to catch the ball only 2m out with nobody in
front but fumbled and knocked-on.
Otago then failed to clear from the scrum even though Jamie Joseph
was back on the field, and Auckland had the scrum instead, only 4m
from the Otago line. Otago put in their best scrum of the game and
it looked as if Zinzan Brooke might have been forced to have a go
from a couple of metres out, however Stu Forster decided that in
his opinion the ball was out, and conceded a penalty try by kicking
it away. The last in a sequence of silly errors which need not have
been made.
With the score at 23-19 to Auckland with only 2 minutes to play, Otago
started throwing the ball around as only they can, and came close to
making a break-through once or twice, however as we know, only the
French are capable of last-gasp try-scoring to win close matches.
For Auckland, the victory will be as sweet as any, however they only
have to reflect on how ordinary they were made to look for most of the
game by their worthy opponent to bring them back down to Earth.
Otago did not win, but covered themselves in glory for proving the
critics wrong in their assessment that they were no-hopers, and
would be resoundingly beaten.
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### DIVISION 2 ####################################################
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NORTHLAND 18 TARANAKI 22 Half-time: 12-10
at Whangarei
Northland tries:
kicks: W Johnston(5 pen), D Holwell(1 drop)
Taranaki tries: J Bright
kicks: J Cameron(1 conv, 4 pen, 1 drop)
Teams Northland Taranaki
~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~
15 Warren Johnston Dean Magon
14 David Manako Jason Bright
13 Milton Going Etu Manu
12 Tony Monaghan Nick Whiting
11 Hayden Taylor Aaron Whiteman
10 David Holwell Jamie Cameron
9 Steven Moore Michael Carr
8 Justin Collins Andrew Slater
7 Richard Hilton-Jones Neil Crowley
6 Glenn Taylor Ryan Wheeler
5 Eddie Jones Kevin Barrett
4 Norman Maxwell Scott Lines
3 Jason Hammond Paul Graham
2 Tau Siale Shane McDonald
1 Jason Barrell Mark Allen (c)
Coach Sid Going
Referee Steve Walsh (Wellington)
Conditions Overcast, breeze favoured Northland in the first
half, dry.
Having dominated for most of the game through a combination of a superb
effort from the forwards, committed defence in midfield and out wide,
and the cultured boot of first 5/8 Jamie Cameron, Taranaki only just
managed to keep out a charging Northland side who threw everything
at them in the final 10 minutes and made it a nail-biting finish.
Northland started with the breeze, after Taranaki had won the toss and
opted to save the advantage for the second half. Early on, Taranaki
showed that they had the edge at scrum time, making a real mess of
their opposites at the first set-piece.
Lineouts were a different story, with Northland's 'new Ian Jones' Norman
Maxwell totally dominant, and a player to watch for the future. For
Taranaki, only No.6 Ryan Wheeler got any ball, after lock Scott Lines
went off with only 19 minutes gone.
Despite having a huge amount of quality possession due to the lineout
dominance, Northland failed to capitalise, coming to grief on a
Taranaki defensive effort which was superlative. Making every tackle
count, time and again they broke the Northland attacks down, and
the ultra-cool Jamie Cameron, who was voted Man of the Match, had the
space to direct the match with his educated boot, driving Northland back.
Northland was certainly fired up for this encounter in front of their
home crowd, and it showed in the constant infringements brought about
by their eagerness to secure the ball. Also, Taranaki halfback Michael
Carr had a torrid time early on, being caught and put under tremendous
pressure by Northland loosies who pushed the offside law well past its
limit.
When taking the ball up, Taranaki showed themselves to be a class
above Northland, with well-worked moves between the loose trio of
No.8 Andrew Slater, blindside flanker Ryan Wheeler, and openside
flanker Neil Crowley, who put in a superb performance.
With 12 minutes of the first half gone a penalty each, and a drop-goal
to Northland's talented young first 5/8 David Holwell had Northland
up 6-3. Then on the 17th minute Taranaki scored a try. Andrew Slater
made good yards as always and offloaded to Mark 'Bull' Allen who
also charged up in typical fashion. The ball came back and was flung
out wide to the right where Taranaki had an overlap. Dean Magon
fed Jason Bright on the wing who showed everyone why he had a good
reputation as a champion sprinter, running in a great try. Jamie
Cameron rammed it home with the conversion to make it 10-6 to the
visitors.
However only 2 minutes later a Warren Johnston penalty from out in
front narrowed it to 10-9. The rest of the first half was mainly
a story of Northland pressure through good lineout ball, with
Taranaki driving them back time and again through Cameron's touch-
finders. When they got the ball Taranaki put some good attacking
moves together.
Just on halftime, Northland edged ahead through another Johnston
penalty for the home team to turn around into the wind leading by
only 12-10.
With the wind helping, Jamie Cameron's kicking became even more
effective, and this eventually told on Northland, who attacked gamely
but were too easily driven back.
Some 12 minutes into the second spell Taranaki earned another penalty
which Cameron slotted to take them ahead 13-12. Another 6 minutes
later brought it to 16-12, and things looked ominous for Northland
when Cameron took a brilliant drop-goal from at least 40m to make it
19-12 with 23 minutes of the half gone.
However Northland and Taranaki both knew that the home side only
needed a draw to gain promotion, having won the NPC fixture against
Taranaki earlier in the season.
With this in mind the Northland players came back at Taranaki with
renewed energy, earning penalties in the 65th and 70th minutes of
the game to make it a nail-biting 19-18 to Taranaki.
The last 10 minutes brought the best out of Northland rugby. With
hindsight, had they started playing in this manner only 5-10 minutes
earlier, it is doubtful Taranaki would have survived. The Northland
forwards really took it to their opposites, with some superb charges
from the likes of Tau Siale. Alas for Northland it wasn't to be. The
Taranaki defence just held and they adopted the wise move of still
trying to attack, doing so very effectively in the last few minutes
as Northland saw time running out and faltered.
A penalty in the last minute of time to Jamie Cameron gave Taranaki
a deserved 22-18 victory, and earned them promotion back into the
first division at the first attempt.
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### DIVISION 3 ####################################################
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THAMES VALLEY 47 POVERTY BAY 8 Half-time: 24-5
at Paeroa
Thames Valley tries: G McLiver(2), N Manu, D McCallum, R Taylor,
P Clarke
kicks: D McCallum(4 conv, 2 pen), W Hodges(1 drop)
Poverty Bay tries: J Martin
kicks: A Rangihuna(1 pen)
Teams Thames Valley Poverty Bay
~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~
15 D Moloney E Robinson
14 D McCallum J Whitewood
13 N Manu C Baistow
12 R Taylor J Wells
11 G Ellis D Andrews
10 W Hodges A Rangihuna
9 F Teague V Taingahue
8 G McLiver (c) M Ngarimu
7 C McDuff J Martin
6 A Gibbs S Ensor (c)
5 B Rigter E Katalau
4 G Sutton M Johnson
3 C Tremayne D Godbold
2 R Wilton W Kapa
1 D Hazelton C Johnson
Coach Willie Hetaraka Paul Tocker
Referee Paul Honiss (Taranaki)
Conditions Overcast, slight wind favoured Poverty Bay in the
first half, slight drizzle dampened things in the
second half.
Thames Valley, alias the "Swamp Foxes", rammed home their superiority
in the forwards and steamrollered plucky Poverty Bay to win the
Third Division NPC Trophy and earn promotion to Division Two next
season. Although Bay kept playing the brand of open running rugby they
are well-known for, they had no answer to the Valley pack, led by
Gavin McLiver, who took no prisoners when driving off the back of
the scrum, and in general play.
Poverty bay started this match with a pop and a sizzle, scoring an
excellent try after only two minutes. With Valley not yet up to
speed, the Bay backs ran at their opponents putting the ball through
a good many hands before opensider John Martin took a short pass
to fall over the line for an unconverted score.
Thames Valley No.7 Carl McDuff hobbled off to be replaced by David
Dillon.
Thames Valley soon got on track though, and their advantage in the
forwards became obvious with the very first scrum. Sparked by the
strong running No.8 and skipper Gavin McLiver, they had two 5m
scrums after 11 minutes and McLiver delivered the goods in his
trademark style with a pushover try. Not many No.8's in the country
could match his hard driving off the back of the pack. David McCallum
converted to make it 7-5 to Valley.
Poverty Bay stood up to another brace of 5m scrums, this time managing
to clear via Api Rangihuna, but he failed to find touch. Moloney
ran the ball back down the left-hand touchline for Valley, and found
Ellis who passed to Warren Hodges. A final pass to Manu let the centre
in for an excellent try right in the corner on the 20 minute mark.
Poverty Bay kept running the ball, and had some good phases of play,
but could not match it with Thames Valley up front. Bay had to
replace their injured halfback with Mark Cox.
With half an hour gone, and the game rather in the doldrums due to
a good many temporary replacements coming on and going off to
upset the team rythms, Gavin McLiver came back on having had an
ice-pack on some bruised ribs. He had an immediate effect on the
Valley game and some good play resulted in yet another 5m scrum
after Rangihuna had been pressurized to carry the ball back over his
own goal-line. McLiver, never one to take prisoners, scored his
second pushover try in fine fashion, clocking up his 12th try of the
season, and making it 19-5 to Thames Valley.
Although playing an attractive brand of running rugby, Poverty Bay
were unable to penetrate the Valley defensive screen.
A high kick from Valley second 5/8 Taylor saw the ball bounce, and
David McCallum snatched it to race through for an easy try. He
failed to convert, and the score stood at 24-5 when the half-time
whistle blew.
Valley opened the second half playing it close, running one off
the ruck and making good ground. Two penalties slotted by McCallum
were offset by one to Rangihuna making it 30-8 after 10 minutes.
The basic problems Poverty Bay had in the loose were continued in
the second spell with numerous turnovers due to a failure to support
the ball carrier adequately. After 20 minutes gone Richie Taylor
finished off a fine Valley move, dodging between defenders to run
in and come around to ground the ball just to the right of the posts.
McCallum converted to bring the scoreline to 37-8.
Two minutes later Warren Hodges took a nice drop-goal after a good
number of rucks looked like ending up with no result due to some
good Bay defence.
The final nail in Poverty Bay's coffin was driven home by Paul
Clarke, on as replacement fullback. With Poverty Bay doing well on
attack, trying hard to salvage some pride, he intercepted a pass
by Katalau on his own 22m and just managed to stay ahead of his
pursuers to score. The conversion brought the score to 47-8 where
it remained until the end.
A deserved victory to Thames Valley, who should give the second
division a good crack next season.
NEXT SEASON
~~~~~~~~~~~
I'll be back to report the NPC next season hopefully, however I
don't intend to do it alone this time. Recruitment notices are out
on every street in New Zealand for people who want to report NPC
rugby matches. Please e-mail me at the below address for details.
The idea is to at least cover all First Division teams, one person
responsible for each team. I will then edit the match reports each
week, and present the results. Naturally people wishing to contribute
for other Divisions are more than welcome!
Cheers,
Paul.
--
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Paul Waite doc@docdevl.actrix.gen.nz
Wellington, New Zealand +64-4-233-1764
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