Canterbury tackle their way to 18-11 victory over Auckland

9:15pm

Canterbury's concentration on shoring up their defence paid dividends when they beat Auckland 18-11 in a bruising NPC first division rugby match in Auckland tonight.

The defending champions had been chastened by conceding 166 points in their opening five games and spent much time at practice this week plugging the holes that had opened up in earlier matches.

Difficult, wet and slippery conditions at Eden Park and a game Auckland side meant Canterbury were forced to put their bodies on the line repeatedly tonight.

They did just that to telling effect against an Auckland side, who lacked a guiding hand behind a robust and committed forward pack to profitably use the considerable advantage they enjoyed in the ball possession stakes.

Auckland held the ball for long periods of time in both halves but stout Canterbury tackling forced handling errors, which were forgivable in the conditions.

That often saw the ball turned over for Canterbury first five-eighth Andrew Mehrtens, who invariably took the right option, either kicking for position or turning play back towards his forwards.

By contrast, Auckland had no one to dictate play, with first-five Lee Stensness intent on keeping the ball in hand despite the obvious benefits to be had by turning the All Blacks-laden Canterbury around with long, raking punts.

Mehrtens kicked four penalties and two dropped goals as Canterbury took a 12-3 lead into the halftime break before his third penalty and a dropped goal to halfback Justin Marshall increased their lead to 18-3 24 minutes after the resumption.

Auckland finally found a path to the tryline when hooker Keven Mealamu burst up the middle before offloading to Mils Muliaina, who stepped inside his man to score.

When Carlos Spencer landed his second penalty with seven minutes remaining Auckland were back in with a chance at 11-18, but Canterbury comfortably enough weathered the home side's late desperation to emerge with the result they wanted.

- NZPA