Hawke's Bay hold on to beat Counties Manukau

Hawke's Bay 30 Counties Manukau 29

Hawke's Bay finished their first season with the "big boys" of rugby with an away win, closing off their Air New Zealand Cup campaign with a one-point victory over Counties Manukau in Auckland today.

In a match of no consequence as far as the play-offs went, they held on against another newcomers to the premier provincial competition, Counties Manukau, to finish with a 30-29 win.

Counties scored four tries to earn a second bonus point, the other for finishing within seven points, to finish with five points from the repechage round (three games).

But like Hawke's Bay's win, it made no impact for the quarterfinals, with Bay of Plenty having secured that spot from the pool after their third win from as many games with their 27-16 victory over Manawatu on Friday.

Hawke's Bay managed to cross for three tries but Matt Berquist's goalkicking kept them ahead for most of the game. He succeeded with five shots from six attempts, including three penalties, for 13 points.

Replacement hooker Will Crutchley emerged a star of Hawke's Bay when his 70th minute try extended their lead just when Counties came back with two quick tries to close the gap to 23-22 and were threatening an upset.

The try and Chad Shepherd's conversion made it 30-22 but it took just two minutes for Counties to bounce back and nip at Hawke's Bay's heels when their hooker Grant Henson, put clear but with chasers in pursue, raced 22m to score. Troy Nathan added the conversion to his three other goals.

Hawke's Bay looked set for an easy win after they had led 23-7 at halftime following a try each by replacement fullback Daniel Waenga and halfback Danny Lee and three penalties and two conversions by Berquist.

Midfielder Nigel Watson scored a try for Counties and Nathan added the conversion.

After a see-sawing third quarter, Nathan landed a penalty goal and backs Kane Hancy and Lance Easton scored within two minutes of each as lively Counties showed more urgency in their game and looked for a good end to their season.

Crutchley's try denied them that though they did score again through their own No 2 - Henson.

Hawke's Bay 30 (Daniel Waenga, Dany Lee, Will Crutchley tries; Matt Berquist 3 pen, 2 con; Chad Shepherd con)

Counties Manukau 29 (Nigel Watson, Kane Hancy, Lance Easton, Grant Henson tries; Troy Nathan pen, 3 con).

Halftime: 23-7.

- NZPA