Waikato women come from behind to book home semi

Waikato’s Farah Palmer Cup team have come up trumps over the Wellington Pride 31-29 at Waikato Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

The match which had semi final ramifications for Waikato. didn’t get off to the best start. With the Pride going over twice in the first 20 minutes of the match, once to winger Harmony Kautai and prop Lavinia Lea to give them an early lead.

Waikato then struck back quickly, with a try to flanker Ashlee Gaby-Sutherland, however there hard work was undone straight away with an error from the kick off, which resulted in Kautai bagging her second try of the afternoon.

The last 10 minutes of the first half belonged all to Waikato, who were able to cross the line twice. Once from a solo effort to second five-eight Carla Hohepa and then an overlap of numbers on the right side of the field with fullback Lela Ieremia, to give the home side the lead 19-15 into the break.

The first part of second half started the same as the first half did, Wellington grabbed the ascendency with Kautai grabbing her third “meat pie” of the afternoon, while kicker Tamara Ruaporo slotted over her first conversion of the afternoon, to give Wellington the lead once more.

That lead didn’t last long though, co-captain Kennedy Simon dotted down for her first try of the afternoon 5 minutes later to give Waikato the lead back, kicker Ariana Bayler was unable to convert on this occasion.

The next 20 minutes of the game was a hard slog battle, with Waikato seemingly always just one step up on their north island counterparts.

One last piece of brilliance was needed to get the home side over the line, and it eventually came in the 65th minute with replacement flanker Leata Puni-Lio jotting down over the line, with Samantha Wood who replaced Bayler, getting the conversion to give her team a two score lead.

The Pride did fight back to get another try, this time by second five-eight and co-captain Moana Tagoai with Ruaporo nailing the conversion to get them to within two, with only a couple of minutes left in the game.

From the restart, it did look like the Pride would do the unthinkable and silent the boisterous Hamilton crowd, however just before the full time hooter blew Waikato co-captain Chyna Hohepa got the all important turnover penalty to give her side the eventual win 31-29.

With this result, it leapfrogged Waikato into 2nd place on the premiership table, with a showdown against Auckland this Saturday (September 2nd) at Waikato Stadium for a potential spot in the final in a couple of weeks time. With the loss, Wellington will finish the season 0-7 and will be relegated to the championship competition for next season

Score Summary

Waikato 31

Tries: Ashlee Gaby-Sutherland, Carla Hohepa, Lela Ieremia, Kennedy Simon and Leata Puni-Lio

Conversions: Ariana Bayler x2, Samantha Wood x1

Wellington 29

Tries: Harmony Kautai x3, Lavinia Lea and Monica Tagoai

Conversions: Tamara Ruaporo x2