Wellington 16 Bay of Plenty 13
KEY POINTS:
Thank goodness for Hosea Gear, and one moment of magic from the Wellington wing.
Gear's 50th-minute try was a touch of class in what was often a sea of dross as Wellington beat Bay of Plenty in the final round of the Air New Zealand Cup. The match even finished in confusion, with the hooter being sounded a few times before the game was ended.
The result in Rotorua confirmed Wellington's third seeding for the playoffs. They will host Southland in the quarter-finals if Waikato scores its expected win over Northland in Hamilton today.
Wellington were leading 8-7 when Gear struck. He shimmied past Rena Schuster then twisted away from Mike Delany with little room to move and crashed over near the left hand corner. At 13-7, Wellington had enough of a break to defend, even though they never found anything close to top gear.
Bay of Plenty bungled their advantage in the final stages, including kicking a penalty when down by six points with five minutes remaining.
Wellington had a massive penalty count against them after a one side display from referee Matt Stanish. And the visitors also had Jeremy Thrush sinbinned for the last six minutes. Somehow though, they clung on for the win as Bay of Plenty piled on late pressure.
The opening 25 minutes were the most forgettable, which meant Wellington first five-eighths Miah Nikora's simple penalty became the match highlight at that point.
Wayward passes, lazy defence, breaks that led to nowhere - it was very ordinary fare.
Wellington went into the game virtually assured of third spot while Bay of Plenty were well out of contention with just one win from eight games. In terms of producing a gripping match, this was clearly not a marriage made in heaven.
Still, it didn't have to be quite this bad. Nikora's penalty brought a burst of entertainment in the form of a Wellington breakout from the kick-off, with Gear a key figure in he build up which saw flanker Faifili Levave crash over.
Levave was unattended in this act and you had to wonder where exactly the Bay of Plenty defence had got to.
In keeping with the standard so far Nikora, covering for Jimmy Gopperth who was rested for the game, missed a simple conversion.
* Counties-Manukau rugby coach Kevin Putt has quit his job.
His resignation was accepted by the Counties-Manukau Rugby Union, who informed the team at their training session yesterday ahead of their final-round match against Taranaki tomorrow.
Counties are the only side in the 14-team competition without a win this season.
"Kevin has put in two years of complete dedication to our high performance plan and has uplifted our player and coach development programmes to levels we have not seen in this region for many years," Counties-Manukau chief executive Nick Sheppard said.
"Obviously we also share in Kevin's disappointment at the results in the Air New Zealand Cup but we have been pleased with the programme that Kevin developed for the Steelers, although it has not transformed into on-field results this season."
Wellington 16
Bay of Plenty 13
- NZPA
