Counties Manukau retain Ranfurly Shield with tense win over Hawke’s Bay

Counties Manukau will hold onto the prized Ranfurly Shield until next year after surviving a tense finish to beat Hawke’s Bay 12-7 in the National Provincial Championship, despite not scoring any points beyond the 27-minute mark.

Captain Jimmy Tupou led the Steelers to a drought-breaking Shield challenge win last weekend, as they upset Northland 22-19. With one more round left in the 10-week regular season, Counties had a chance to lock up the Log o’ Wood for the off-season.

Hawke’s Bay had started the NPC season with a perfect 6-0 record, which included some high-scoring victories against Wellington, Tasman, Auckland and Manawatu. But a run of three defeats since had the Magpies eager to bounce back before the playoffs.

Counties were first to strike at Navigation Holme Stadium, with outside back Adam Brash dotting down for the opener in the 10^th minute. It didn’t take the Steelers long to get back into a point-scoring position, with a series of penalties awarded in favour of the hosts.

The Magpies still managed to hang on, for a while at least, as their defensive wall continued to stand tall despite the waves of relentless pressure. But there was something inevitable about the Steelers at that stage, with AJ Alatimu given a chance to kick more points.

Alatimu had missed the conversion after the Brash try, and the first five-eighth missed his second shot at the poles too. The score remained 5-0, before Melani Matavao crossed for a five-pointer in the 26^th minute, which was converted.

It was 12-0 in favour of Counties at half-time, but the home side wouldn’t score any more points throughout the remainder of the match. One-Test Wallaby Darby Lancaster scored around the 60-minute mark, with Harry Godfrey adding the extras.

Hawke’s Bay trailed by just five points with less than 20 to play, and the visitors had their chances to score more. It was a round 10 thriller that came down to the wire, with the Magpies looking to steal it late.

Godfrey kicked for the corner after the Hawke’s Bay were awarded a penalty, with the forwards setting up for a lineout about 10 metres out from Counties’ line. But the home side made a game-defining play at the defensive set-piece, as they held on for a gritty result.

“I don’t think we could’ve won that game any better way,” Tupou said post-game on Sky Sport NZ.

“We talked the last couple of weeks about just making our people proud and obviously we made everyone proud last week, but we knew we had to pretty awesome opportunity to bring everyone together today.

“Some of those defensive sets, I’m so proud of.”

Counties finished the season with four wins from their last six matches, but it wasn’t enough to secure the Ranfurly Shield holders a place in the playoffs. Hawke’s Bay will play finals footy this month, finishing the regular season with a 6-4 record.