KEY POINTS:
Taranaki 13
Counties Manukau 13
Taranaki's quarter-final hopes were left in a precarious state after drawing with underdogs Counties Manukau in New Plymouth last night.
Willie Ripia nailed a wide conversion from fullback Asalemo Malo's 80th minute try to salvage the draw, after referee Keith Brown missed a clear Scott Waldrom knock on.
But Taranaki face a battle with Waikato in Hamilton in the final round of the Air New Zealand Cup.
Counties Manukau were inspired by the casual class of Tasesa Lavea, who is part bomber, part glider. Taranaki were all bombs though in the scoring department.
None more so when Malo dropped a simple inside pass early in the second half with the tryline open. And Jayden Hayward had a 66th minute attempt rubbed out by the video referee after scraping the touchline with his dive.
Minutes later, Paul Perez stumbled and nose dived into touch with the line begging, and the cover struggling.
This was a litany of letdowns.
Followed by yet another, with an overlap to the left squashed by a diving Tanner Vili. And another, when a laboured drive at the Counties Manukau line was met with brave defence which won a penalty.
This was tense but hardly classy stuff, and there was only one moment in the match you could put in this category when Lavea toyed with the Taranaki defence in the 20th minute to set up the game's first try.
The No 10 mesmerised Taranaki's scruffy defensive line, using an inside runner as a decoy and then putting No 8 Fritz Lee through a hole on his outside.
It was a moment of delicate rapier work in a match that fell well short of this magic moment.
Taranaki 13 (A. Malo try, W. Ripia 2 pen, con)
Counties Manukau 13 (F. Lee try, D. Cummins 2 pen, con).
HT: Counties 10-3.
