Chiefs Manawa hold tight for nail-biting win over Matatu
A titanic effort on defence in the second half has ensured the Chiefs Manawa have started Super Rugby Aupiki in pole position, securing a 17-15 win over the South Island’s Matatu in Hamilton on Thursday night.
While there were tries aplenty in the opening spell, just a solitary 5-pointer to Matatu tighthead prop Amy Rule was scored in the second half. The Manawa were able to repel wave after wave of attack in the final 35 minutes – only breaking after the final buzzer. With fullback Arabella McKenzie not able to convert the score, the Manawa prevailed by a slim two-point margin.
From the outset, it was clear the Manawa were going to double down on the tactic that bore fruit during their pre-season outing last weekend and spread the ball to the wings immediately from the kick-off.
From their first two attacks, the Manawa threatened the Matatu in the outer channels with Ruby Tui and Portia Woodman making handy metres down the sidelines.
While those skirmishes didn’t immediately result in points, they did highlight the doglegs in the Matatu defence and the Manawa continued to attack down the sidelines throughout the first half.
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The first scoring opportunity came off the back of a break from first five Kelly Brazier, with back-to-back penalties against the Matatau eventually giving the Manawa the field position they needed for the forwards to build some pressure. Loosehead prop Angel Mulu ultimately forced the ball for the first-ever Super Rugby Aupiki try.
The Manawa quickly went back to work following the score, putting together some great interplay inside the Matatu half. The defending side held strong under multiple phases of pressure, however, eventually winning themselves a penalty, and were able to set up inside the Manawa 22. From there, it took an Amy du Plessis half-break down the sideline (which likely would have resulted in an immediate score, with one more pass) for the Matatu to set up right on the tryline. Not to be outdone by her opposite, Pip Love crashed over seconds later.
The back-and-forth nature of the match continued with the Manawa nabbing the next try through Tui, with Brazier converting from the sideline to give the home side a 12-5 lead shortly after the 20-minute mark.
Loose play from the following kick-off handed the Matatu three attacking scrums inside the Manawa 22 and a nice offload from Liv McGoverne eventually gave Grace Steinmetz the space she needed to dot down for the Matatu’s second of the evening.
At that stage, there was just 5 minutes left to play in the shortened first half but the Manawa weren’t done. After some relatively scrappy play from both sides, an excellent kick-and-chase from fullback Hazel Tubic saw the Manawa in ample space and a great support run, draw and pass from Victoria Edmonds gave Black Ferns No 8 Kennedy Simon the ball with no one in front of her and she was able to fend off the back-tracking Matatu defence to score out wide for her side, giving the Manawa a 17-10 lead at halftime.
While the breakdown contest had been relatively non-existent in the first half, a renewed ferocity at the ruck characterised the opening minutes of the second stanza, with the likes of Tui and Lucy Jenkins earning their sides penalties in relatively quick succession. McGoverne couldn’t nail the first penalty shot at goal of the match, however, with the kick just landing short.
In fact, in a stark change from the opening half, no points were scored in the second spell until after the final hooter, with regular handling errors seeing possession quickly swap back and forth before either side was able to make much ground up the park.
The ball rarely left the Manawa’s territory, with the Matatu spending over 5 minutes attacking inside their opposition’s 22, and it was only through some colossal work on defence that the home team were able to hold strong.
After holding out wave after wave of attack, a pair of penalties in quick succession finally handed the Manawa some breathing space with less than five minutes left on the clock and although they weren’t able to hold onto the ball for the remainder of the game or keep their opposition out, they prevented them from scoring near the posts – which was enough to give the Manawa an inaugural Super Rugby Aupiki win.
Chiefs Manawa 17 (Angel Mulu, Ruby Tui, Kennedy Simon tries; Kelly Brazier conversion)
Matatu 15 (Pip Love, Grace Steinmetz, Amy Rule tries)
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
29 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
29 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
29 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
29 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
29 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments