Waikato fall agonisingly short

By CHRIS RATTUE

WELLINGTON 30 WAIKATO 29

The boos rang around Waikato Stadium as Wellington upset Waikato in tonight's NPC semifinal, but the home side had mainly themselves to blame for their defeat.

Referee Gary Wise ran into controversy by refusing to use the video referee when he should have, sinbinning Waikato captain Jono Gibbes in bizarre circumstances, and incorrectly calling a crucial forward pass against the home side late in the game.

But if Wise made some strange decisions, so did Waikato, none more so than when they failed to take advantage of a straight 40m penalty chance in the 73rd minute when trailing by one point.

Waikato played on as Wise called advantage, which lapsed with Waikato none the better off. As decision making goes, it scores a nought out of 10.

Three minutes earlier, wing Filimoni Bolavucu had accepted an unsual gift try, with Wellington having no chance of overhauling the Fijian flyer. But even then, he made only a token gesture at getting close to the goal posts, and David Hill muffed the tricky conversion. On these small matters even big games can swing. And this one did.

Not that Wellington deserved to lose.

They were the side who came to play, making major inroads into the Waikato defence from the word go, with inside passes and the powerful running of the Waldrom brothers and wing Roy Kinikinilau - a converted loose forward - doing the damage.

In contrast, Waikato were slow in their decision makings, struggled to break the line, continually knocked on, and were out of sync with Wise's tackle ball rulings.

Their backline defence was jumbled as Wellington jinked around tacklers and offloaded to runners.

Waikato's key defensive blunder came in the 62nd minute when wing Sosene Anesi gifted Wellington their final try, failing to force the ball after chasing back, allowing Scott Waldrom to pounce. Another elementary error.

Wellington were quite brilliant at times, from the languid power of Kinikinilau to the free spirit of unheralded centre Conrad Smith, and the running of Thomas and Scott Waldrom.

Waikato's attacks went in fits and starts, and they generated enthusiasm from Wellington's scoring moments, rather than taking the initiative themselves. Yet they hung in there, and had their chance.

Wise came under verbal attack from Waikato when he failed to use the video referee when Deacon Manu believed he had scored midway through the second spell. Minutes later Gibbes was sinbinned for his words - Wise halting a Waikato attack to do so.

It meant Gibbes was missing when Waikato failed to take up the late penalty offer. A word to the Wise, in this case, proved very unwise.

Wellington 30 (Luke Andrews, Conrad Smith, Roy Kinikinilau, Scott Waldrom tries; Riki Flutey 2 pen, 1 con, Jimmy Gopperth 1 con)

Waikato 29(Steven Bates, Sosene Anesi, Jono Gibbes, Filimoni Bolavucu tries; David Hill 1 pen, 3 con).

HT: 18-14.