Eketahuna stars shine in romp over Taranaki

RUGGED: Katie Turnbull dominated on attack and defence.

The Eketahuna connection played a big part in Manawatu's convincing 49-12 win over Taranaki in their opening NPC women's rugby match in Palmerston North on Saturday.

No8 Katie Turnbull, first-five Rebecca Mahoney and centre Huia Paul were in the Manawatu starting line-up and Tatiana Tafatu came off the reserves bench to play at halfback.

Black Fern Mahoney contributed 14 points with the boot and Paul and Turnbull scored a try apiece as Manawatu ran in seven overall; six of them in the second half.

Taranaki had a stiff wind at their backs in the opening 40 minutes and consequently spent most of that spell deep in Manawatu territory.

But all they had to show for their efforts was one try and the two teams went to the interval locked together at 5-5.

Mahoney described the wind as "horrendous" with any attempt to kick into the teeth of it invariably seeing the ball blown back behind the kicker so, not surprisingly, the Manawatu tactics revolved around having their forwards keep possession in hand, thereby restricting Taranaki's scoring opportunities.

Turnbull was a regular ball carrier for Manawatu in that first half, often crashing and bashing her way past a couple of tackles before offloading to her supports, and she was just as assertive with her close-quarter defence whenever Taranaki threatened the Manawatu line.

The second half was a completely different story.

Early on, the Manawatu emphasis was on having the educated boot of Mahoney pin Taranaki inside their own 22m but, once they had established a handy lead, the shackles were removed and the Manawatu backs, with Paul prominent, cut loose on a regular basis.

"We've got a few national sevens players in the backs and it was good to be able to use their flair and speed to advantage," Mahoney said.

"There were some really nice tries scored, it was all pretty encouraging."

Mahoney is well aware, however, that Manawatu will face a much stiffer assignment this coming Saturday when they play Wellington, probably at Petone. Wellington were on the end of an upset 21-17 loss to Otago in their opening game but Mahoney knows enough about their players not to read too much into that result.

"They have plenty of size up front and some pacy backs. They'll be a handful, no doubt about that."