ITM Cup: Canterbury trump Turbos

Johnny McNicholl was in fine form as Canterbury established a big lead. Photo / Getty

Manawatu 7
Canterbury 57

A pair of teams trending in different directions produced the most probable result in Palmerston North tonight.

Canterbury remained unbeaten and moved to the top of the ITM Cup Premiership standings after thumping the winless Manawatu in a meeting reflective of both sides' seasons.

The visitors' stunning opening salvo blew away the Turbos and meant saving face was their only realistic aim for the majority of the match. Manawatu managed to achieve an element of that, even enjoying their own dominant stretches, but the damage had well and truly been done.

A fourth straight defeat to begin the campaign was all but assured when Canterbury brought up the bonus point in the opening quarter, confirming to Manawatu that winning promotion to the Premiership can be something of a mixed blessing.

In saying that, though, the tackling they displayed in the nascent stages would have seen them struggle even in the Championship. Time and again the Turbos were guilty of missing the most basic of tackles, allowing Canterbury to run rampant straight through the middle of their defence.

Scott Robertson's side needed no second invitation, enjoying quick and clean ball to illustrate the counter-attacking ability that helped them win their first three games, running in a trio of tries in the opening eight minutes.

Manawatu were struggling to merely get their hands on the ball, and in the rare instances when they did find possession they were guilty of giving it straight back through elementary errors.

The home side were also unable to venture outside of their own half with any regularity, and it took until the sixth time Canterbury crossed before they finally enjoyed a spell of possession inside the opposition 22, capitalising through a deserved try from Fraser Stone.

Perhaps there would have been more respectability to the scoreline had Semisi Masirewa's runaway effort early in the second spell not been called back. Instead, the red-and-black machine ran in another three tries to continue their march.

Manawatu 7 (Stone try; Black con)
Canterbury 57 (Suckling 2, Drummond, Thompson 3, Bird, Funnell, McNicholl tries; Taylor 6 cons)
HT: 7-38