Canterbury 57
Wellington 41
The national rugby championship hurt goes on for Wellington.
Canterbury won last night's free wheeling ITM Cup semifinal in Christchurch and will host Auckland or Waikato in the final.
Wellington have been in six of the last seven national finals and lost them all, including the last four. Their last title win was in 2000, in the days of Christian Cullen, Tana Umaga, Jonah Lomu and Jerry Collins.
Canterbury are now on target to score their third successive title.
They always had the scoring edge last night but just couldn't shake free of a young Wellington side until the final minutes.
Ironically the killer blow from Canterbury came from a try through a brilliant lineout drive, the lineout being one of their weak areas in the match.
Colin Slade put on a brilliant goalkicking display landing all 11 of his shots at goal to lead his side into the final.
Powerful Canterbury centre Robbie Fruean made another strong statement for his All Black chances as he led the outside backs on a try scoring rampage.
After the frenetic scoring of the first half, there was an almost indecent wait of 15 minutes before Slade landed the first points of the second spell, a penalty after Fruean had manhandled his opposite Tajhon Mailata away for the second time in the game.
The button had been pushed and inside a minute, Wellington hit back when their teenage inside backs set up a Victor Vito try.
Wellington prop John Schwalger was controversially denied a try when referee Keith Brown did not believe he had forced the ball after driving over in a tackle, and the video referee could not find conclusive evidence otherwise.
Common sense, however, suggested Schwalger must have done enough. Wellington were left with a penalty goal for their troubles.
Canterbury led 34-26 at halftime after a bizarre tit-for-tat scoring spree that was not exactly what semifinal rugby is traditionally all about.
Barely three or four minutes would go by in the spell without some scoring action. There were moments of poor defence but it was not all bad.
The game took on a life force of its own as Canterbury scored four tries, and Wellington two.
Among the standouts was Canterbury fullback Sean Maitland's effort, from a Canterbury turnover, when he quickly summed up the situation and stormed on to a pass, then galloped 80 metres to the try line.
Fruean was also imposing, a big 13th minute run setting up hooker Steve Fualau's try and another charge - during which he shoved off Mailata - sending Telusa Veainu to the line close to halftime.
Fruean stormed over for a try himself, feeding off a clever Slade pass which may have been a touch forward.
Wellington kept nibbling away at the Canterbury try-fest though.
Canterbury helped their cause with shoddy defending as fullback Apoua Stewart sauntered past Matt Todd and Slade for a try. A crop of penalties enabled Lima Sopoaga's goalkicking to keep Wellington in touch.
Canterbury: 57 (T. Veainu 2, S. Maitland, R. Fruean, S. Fualau, I. Ross tries; C. Slade 5 pen, 6 con )
Wellington: 41 (J. Savea, A. Stewart, V. Vito, T. Perenara tries; L. Sopoaga 5 pen, 3 con).
Halftime: 34-26.
