Canterbury just too good

Apologies to every other union in the country. We gave it our best shot but the Ranfurly Shield will stay in the Canterbury trophy cabinet for the summer. To be honest, we genuinely thought we were in with a sniff at the break, but Canterbury proved why they are such a prized scalp in the NZ domestic competition with a persistent, consistent, and unrelenting style of rugby that proved too strong for our valiant boys, running out tonight’s winners by 47-18.

The first 40 was a traditional seesaw with the lead changing hands a few times. First points were a penalty to Jordie Barrett, followed by a superb try to Matt Vaega who was sent over in the left wing corner by Tevita Li on the back of some consistent forward play, and ball retention.
4 minutes later Richie Mo’unga made a break in a rare hole in our backline leading to Tom Sanders scoring, and at the 19 minute mark, George Bridge scored under the Harbour posts after 2 consecutive SBW-esque offloads from Barrett and Goodhue. The Harbour lads kept their composure though, and created good opportunities through forward momentum, and more ball retention. Sione Mafileo crossed for his first 5 pointer of the season from 3m out, and after 40 minutes of quality, focussed, and (relatively) error free rugby, we were all tied up at the break 15-15.

We even scored first after halftime when we stole possession from the kick off, and Gatland picked up three more from a Cantab infringement at the ruck. That was at the 45 minute mark. It was also our last contribution to the scoreboard. There was no denying the intent was there from the Harbour team, but Canterbury have a way of grinding teams down and simply denying scoring opportunities.

The Cantab machine really stepped up a gear with second half tries to Goodhue, Mo’unga, and Nathan Vella, with Barrett and Mo’unga sharing the kicking duties missing just 2 between them in 80 minutes.

Silver linings though. Murphy Taramai was immense and Chris Vui led from the front, Connor Collett gave away size but continues to increase the value of the mortgage he has on the 7 jersey, and Matt McGahan continues to look more and more at home in the # 15.
 

There are very good reasons Canterbury won tonight.
Too many errors by their opposition and the bounce of the ball going their way, but the main reason is they, quite simply, a very, very, good rugby team.

Our next game is home to Tasman on Wednesday October 12, kick off at 7.35pm

Canterbury 47 (Tom Sanders, George Bridge, Jack Goodhue, Richie Mo'unga, Nathan Vella, Jack Stratton tries; Jordie Barrett 3 con, 3 pen, Mo'unga con) 
North Harbour 18 (Matt Vaega, Sione Mafileo tries; Bryn Gatland con, 2 pen) 
HT: 15-15