The second round of the Air New Zealand Cup got under way as Tasman beat Manawatu 33-10 at Landsdowne Park in Blenheim.

In a game that was patchy at times, a rare appearance by All Black Chris Jack settled down the Tasman lineout after they had lost several against the throw early on.

Manawatu came into this game having never won an Air New Zealand Cup game, but with boosted confidence after a good showing against defending champions Waikato last week.

'These clashes between the second-tier Air New Zealand Cup teams often produce excellent spectacles like this one. But they also show that the gulf between the haves and the have-nots is very wide'


Tasman opened the scoring in the 12th minute after a patient build-up in the forwards, the ball being shifted wide to winger Alfred Pelenise, who scored in the left-hand corner. Fly-half Tim Taylor converted.

Another Taylor penalty extended the lead five minutes later but Manawatu, trailing 10-0, lifted their intensity with an extended period of attack only to be thwarted by a number of Tasman infringements.

The parade of penalties continued and after another missed shot at goal, referee Gary Wise issued a warning to the Tasman players, moments before Graham Smith got his team on the board with a penalty goal.

Unfortunately, this was not to be Smith's night as he made a shocking error in the dying minutes of the first half, dropping the ball in his own in-goal area. The resulting scrum led to a penalty and Taylor slotted his second kick of the night, sending his team into the break 13-3 ahead.

Smith's woes continued in the second half, conceding a penalty right from the kick-off for a high tackle and Taylor made the score 16-3. Things then went from bad to worse when prop Talau Hala deliberately killed the ball in a Tasman rolling maul and was shown a yellow card.

Taylor turned Hala's indiscretion into three more points for the home side. Manawatu tried to open the game up in an attempt to compensate for playing one forward short. But just as their back line threatened they threw the ball straight to Taylor, who beat two would-be tacklers and sent winger Blair Cook away down the right flank for his side's second try.

As the hour mark approached, both teams began to send replacements onto the field at regular intervals which generally robs the game of some structure. However, this game continued to be a tightly-contested forward battle, the advantage up front shifting regularly with neither side able to build an attack of any substance.

Tasman finally paid the price for their repeated infringing in their own half as replacement prop Tristran Moran was sent to the sin-bin after just 10 minutes of the field for collapsing a maul. The visitors spent the next 10 minutes firmly on attack and finally crossed the line after a nice skip pass from Francisco Bosch to captain Hayden Triggs in the 76th minute. Replacement fly-half Matty James added the extras, closing the gap to 26-10.

The home side hit back almost immediately, claiming a turnover, followed by some excellent support play which led to replacement James Foote scoring near the left touchline. He converted his own try to make the full time score 33-10.

Both teams lifted their game considerably from last week, but went off the boil too often to compete with the competition front runners. Taylor showed his class, controlling the flow of the game well and regularly catching fullback Bosch out of position, as well as his excellent goal kicking.

These clashes between the second-tier Air New Zealand Cup teams often produce excellent spectacles like this one. But they also show that the gulf between the haves and the have-nots is very wide. Still, the teams from the smaller centres frequently get better support than their big-city cousins - and that is one of the draw-cards of this competition.

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