Scratchy Canterbury effort still good enough

7.30pm


Canterbury face an anxious wait to see if they have booked a home NPC first division rugby final after hammering Northland 68-19 in Christchurch today.

Canterbury ran in 10 tries to gain maximum points, retain the Ranfurly Shield for another summer and confirm winless Northland's status as the bottom team to play the promotion-relegation match against the second division champions in a fortnight.

But the red and blacks will be cheering North Harbour on to beat Bay of Plenty tomorrow to ensure they finish in the top two and host one semifinal next weekend.

Fullback Ben Blair scored the final try on the fulltime siren to bag three for the night while wing Scott Hamilton and replacement flanker Johnny Leo'o both scored a double.

All Blacks goalkicker Daniel Carter was his usual radar-like self, converting nine of the Canterbury tries and scoring one himself in the 29th minute for a personal haul of 22 points.

The hosts raced in six tries in the first half and it could have been more but for some sloppy passing and handling with a glut of possession.

Wing Caleb Ralph's try in the 26th minute from a clever Carter in-pass secured them the bonus point on the way to a 42-5 halftime lead.

Canterbury looked like threatening Wellington's season record score of 73-28 over Taranaki, but their standards slipped noticeably.

Northland, who missed 28 tackles, showed more fight in the second half as Canterbury coach Aussie McLean called on his bench players.

Replacement Northland halfback Rhyan Caine showed quick thinking to score a brace of tries either side of the break before flying Fijian winger Fero Lasagavibau sprinted 65m to score the visitors' third try just before fulltime.

Canterbury captain Richie McCaw was far from impressed.

"All the talk was that we were assured of winning this game but we had to ensure we played well because you can fall into the trap of reading your own press," McCaw said.

"We wanted to make sure we did the Shield proud, and looking back it wasn't too bad but we've certainly got some work to do.

"It might work to our advantage. We realise we're not quite where we need to be. It'll keep everyone's feet on the ground.

"It certainly was a bit disappointing."

Northland captain Jared Going was reaching for the positives and remained confident of staying in the top division.

They conceded 436 points from their nine matches this season and secured just one competition bonus point.

"We had aspirations of taking the Shield home, we'd talked about it all week as our focus but they just came out in that first half and blew us off the paddock," Going said.

"We can take quite a lot out of that second half, we scored some good tries, kept a hold of that ball and put them under pressure."

Scores:-

Canterbury 68 (Ben Blair 3, Scott Hamilton 2, Johnny Leo'o 2, Caleb Ralph, Daniel Carter, Casey Laulala tries; Carter 9 con)

Northland 19 (Rhyan Caine 2, Fero Lasagavibau tries; Jared Going 2 con).

Halftime: 42-5.


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