Highlights: Canterbury secure Premiership title
The 35-13 demolition of the Tasman Makos secured Canterbury their ninth title in 10 years and their 14th overall.
For the second consecutive year Tasman threatened in the early stages, but ultimately fell short to a very efficient Canterbury team.
In the 2016 Premiership Final between the same sides, it was Mo’unga who starred with two tries and he was even more influential on Saturday.
Canterbury completely shut out Tasman 39-0 when they met in Round One, but it didn’t take long to see this clash would be a lot closer as the Makos took the game to the reigning champions in the opening quarter.
Playing with high energy and enthusiasm, Tasman had Canterbury on the back foot and opened the scoring in the 10th minute when powerful midfielder Levi Aumua finished off a brilliant interchange of passing.
A Mitchell Hunt penalty soon after stretched Tasman out to a 10-0 lead – a fair reflection of their early dominance.
Enter Richie Mo’unga. The classy flyhalf missed last week’s semifinal due to being assembled with the All Blacks but stunned Tasman with two brilliant individual tries in the space of five minutes.
In the first, he beat two defenders down the short side to put Canterbury on the board. The second was a spectacular 50 metre effort where he completely bamboozled the Tasman defence to put Canterbury out in front for the first time.
With regular front row forwards Tim Perry and Kane Hames with the All Blacks Northern Tour squad, Tasman struggled up front and Canterbury took advantage on the stroke of halftime.
Opting for a line-out instead of a shot at goal, Canterbury struck on a vital blow on Tasman as Tim Bateman crossed to put Canterbury out to a 19-13 halftime lead.
Canterbury dominated possession in the second half but struggled to cross the line as the Makos defence remained resolute. The pressure told on the scoreboard through Richie Mo’unga penalties in the 42nd, 55th and 64th minute to put the home side out to a 28-13 lead with 15 minutes to play.
Tasman looked to stretch the ball wide to the exciting pair of James Lowe and Will Jordan in the closing stages but the Canterbury defence was equal to the task and was not willing to offer Tasman a route back into the contest.
Fittingly it was Mo’unga who orchestrated Canterbury’s only second half try when he put Jack Stratton over to confirm Canterbury as the best team in New Zealand for another season.
Man of the match: James Lowe tried his best to spark Tasman, but the real star was new All Black Richie Mo’unga. The Canterbury flyhalf could do no wrong.
The scorers:
For Canterbury:
Tries: Mo’unga 2, Bateman, Stratton
Cons: Mo’unga 3
Pens: Mo’unga 3
For Tasman Makos:
Tries: Aumua
Cons: Hunt
Pens: Hunt 2
Teams:
Canterbury: 15 George Bridge, 14 Josh McKay, 13 Tim Bateman, 12 Rob Thompson, 11 Braydon Ennor, 10 Richie Mo’unga, 9 Mitchell Drummond, 8 Luke Whitelock (captain), 7 Billy Harmon, 6 Tom Sanders, 5 Dominic Bird, 4 Hamish Dalzell, 3 Siate Tokolahi, 2 Ben Funnell, 1 Alex Hodgman.
Replacements: 16 Nathan Vella, 17 Chris Gawler, 18 Oliver Jager, 19 Reed Prinsep, 20 Tom Christie, 21 Jack Stratton, 22 Brett Cameron, 23 Inga Finau.
Tasman Makos: 15 Will Jordan, 14 Tomas Aoake, 13 Levi Aumua, 12 Alex Nankivell, 11 James Lowe, 10 Mitchell Hunt, 9 Finlay Christie, 8 Jordan Taufua, 7 Vernon Fredericks, 6 Ethan Blackadder, 5 Shannon Frizell, 4 Alex Ainley (captain), 3 Tyrel Lomax, 2 Andrew Makalio, 1 Siua Halanukonuka.
Replacements: 16 Ti’i Paulo, 17 Tom Hill, 18 Ryan Coxon/Drew Petelo, 19 Pari Pari Parkinson, 20 Pete Samu/Braden Stewart, 21 Billy Guyton/Ben Finau, 22 Tim O’Malley, 23 Trael Joass.
Referee: Mike Fraser
Assistant referees: Nick Briant, Danny Morrison
TMO: Shane McDermott
Reporting Rugby365.com
Comments on RugbyPass
late 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
4 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
24 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
24 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.
24 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.
24 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?
9 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
9 Go to commentsAI is only as good as the information put in, the nuances of the sport, what you see out the corner of the eye, how you sum up in a split second the situation, yes the AI is a tool but will not help win games, more likely contribute to a loss, Rugby Players are not robots, all AI can do if offer a solution not the solution. AI will effect many sports, help train better golfers etc.
45 Go to commentsIt couldn’t have been Ryan Crotty. He wasn’t selected in either World Cup side - they chose Money Bill instead. And Money Bill only cared about himself, and that manager he had, not the team.
28 Go to commentsYawn 🥱 nobody would give a hoot about this new trophy. End of the day we just have to beat Ireland and NZ this year then they can finally shut up 🤐
24 Go to comments