Wellington 33 Counties Manukau 18
Wellington entered last night's provincial championship match against humble Counties-Manukau at Mt Smart as seven to one favourites, but while they won they looked anything but a contender for even the quarter-finals.
Trailing 18-13 when Counties prop Simon Lemalu crossed from a lineout maul early in the second
spell, Wellington grabbed the lead back with a 40m burst from halfback Alby Matthewson from a Counties lineout overthrow for one of the match's few skilful moments.
From there Wellington, with 18-year-old Daniel Kirkpatrick coming on for a bright debut, went on to win, but this was a game which brought little satisfaction to either side before once again a paltry Counties home crowd. When the rugby is of the sort seen last night no one could blame a Steelers supporter not wasting his time trekking into the Auckland motorway traffic from as far away as Pukekohe.
And even though there were times when Counties seemed as if they might win, even a stay-at-home fan, no matter how loyal, might have been tempted to switch the television set off, so moderate was the quality of the rugby.
Adding to Counties' concerns was the loss to an injury in the second spell of experienced captain Kristian Ormsby.
Canterbury referee Vinny Munro was one of the night's most active participants, whistling up several penalties, most of which were against the Steelers, particularly for offences at the breakdowns.
A first spell of moderate quality saw the scores level 13-all at halftime, and that was an accurate reflection of the fact that neither of two under-performing sides had gained an edge.
The Steelers could not have made a more inauspicious start, with Ormsby botching the kickoff, but Wellington never took the chance of capitalising.
First five-eighths Jimmy Gopperth landed a couple of early penalties but Wellington's lack of accuracy was exemplified by one of their more experienced players, centre Ma'a Nonu, who bombed one tryscoring chance by hanging on too long and then another with a dreadful pass to his left.
Wellington 33 (T. Kopelani, A. Matthewson, S. Paku, tries; J. Gopperth, 2 pen, con; D. Kirkpatrick, 2 pen, 2 con).
Counties Manukau 18 (K. Farrell, S. Lemalu, tries; T. Nathan, 2 pen, con). HT: 13-13.
