Rugby: Pack powers Hawke's Bay to win

Chris Eaton. Photo / Getty Images

Hawke's Bay continued their late season run with a 25-13 win over Northland in a national provincial championship rugby match at Napier tonight.

The three- tries to one victory after trailing 8-10 at halftime saw the Magpies and Northland swap places in the standings in ninth and 10th respectively.

Coming off last week's 34-34 draw with Auckland, and a 32-24 win over Taranaki the round before, Hawke's Bay got off to a slow start, allowing Northland to pound at their line for the first 10 minutes.

Northland had a chance to take an early lead only to see fullback Lachie Munro miss his first penalty attempt of the game.

In their first raid upfield, Hawke's Bay had Northland pinned in deep defence but after 13 phases, their patience broke and skipper Jason Shoemark threw a blind pass that Munro intercepted.

The Northland fullback raced upfield unchalleneged to score the opening try of the match which he also converted.

The game swung back Hawke's Bay's way when energetic halfback Chris Eaton produced a brilliant solo run down the left flank after a lineout turnover to beat two tacklers and dot down.

Fullback Mark Jackman missed the conversion but made amends with a successful penalty that got his side into the lead at 8-7 only to see Munro nail another penalty to give his side a 10-8 lead at halftime.

The Hawke's Bay pack, with loose forwards Karl Lowe and Michael Johnson, prop Clint Newland, hooker Hika Elliott and lock Bryn Evans prominent, took control of the game after the breather.

Jackman gave Hawke's Bay the lead again with another penalty and then burly winger Richard Buckman powered through three Northland tacklers to score in the corner after a Khan Fotuali'i dab down the middle broke the Northland defence.

Jackman's conversion saw the lead stretch out to 18-10 and although Munro, who scored all his side's points closed the gap with another penalty, first five Fotuali'i sealed the game for the Magpies with a converted try after Evans had pulled down a late Northland drop out.

- NZPA