Auckland 32 Otago 21
KEY POINTS:
Auckland have kept their focus admirably this season against inferior opposition but last night they turned in a flat performance against Otago.
More often than not in the opening exchanges, Otago beat their more fancied opponents to the punch, with the loose forward trio of Matt O'Connell, Alando Soakai and Adam Thompson causing severe disruption to the usually slick Auckland machine.
Even so, it was Auckland who scored first. The 16th minute try came from an individual piece of skill from wing David Smith, who dummied from the base of ruck and flew down the touchline before finishing with an entirely unnecessary but crowd-pleasing goose step.
Otago hadn't won at Eden Park for 31 years and they never looked like breaking that barren spell last night, but they did at least make a game of it.
Their opening try was a loosie special, with No 8 O'Connell ripping the ball clear in a tackle before sending openside Soaki marauding into the Auckland 22. Soaki was closed down by the cover but he fired a neat pass to blindside Thomson, who finished like a wing in the left corner.
A Charlie Hore penalty put Otago in front but once again it was a piece of individual brilliance that turned the tables.
Playing in his favoured fullback position for the first time this season, Isa Nacewa demonstrated the perfect way turn defence into attack, seizing a midfield bomb and slicing through the brittle Otago line before drawing fullback Hore and sending Troy Flavell over between the posts for his first Auckland try.
Nacewa's second conversion gave the lacklustre Aucklanders a four-point lead at the break.
Just when the second half was looking as if it might meander at the pace of the first, Auckland burst into life to score what could well rank as the best team try of the competition.
Brad Mika made the initial bust and offload and by the time Smith finished next to the posts the ball had travelled at pace through six pairs of hands.
Otago plugged away with a brace of Hore penalties but no side will beat Auckland this year via that route.
Nacewa promptly added two penalties to cancel out Hore's efforts but, despite a series of promising attacks, a bonus point fourth try eluded them until the 77th minute when replacement first five-eighths Lachie Munro finished off an Angus McDonald break.
Munro's predecessor, Tasesa Lavea, did little to catch the eye in a comeback that lasted 60 minutes but the banner on display near the front of the terraces - "Lavea Sucks" - was on the harsh side.
Fellow departing veteran Brent Ward's second half introduction was greeted by a sign saying "thanks for the memories".
With Auckland certain to hold a home quarter-final and potentially a semi and final to follow that, those farewells seem more than a touch premature. Then again, another flat display such as this in the big games ahead and Auckland's season may end sooner than many are expecting.
As if to underscore the point, Otago had the last say with a try to Hore in referee's time.
Auckland 32
Otago 21
