Five teams unbeaten in midpoint of round-robins

Thirty five sides started the ITM Cup, the Women’s NPC and the Heartland Championship last month and five remain unbeaten across New Zealand’s three flagship provincial rugby competitions.

Heading into the second half of the round-robins, Premiership big guns Canterbury and Tasman are the two unbeaten teams left in the ITM Cup, whilst defending champions Auckland and Waikato are both unbeaten in the Women’s NPC and Mid Canterbury are the only side in the Heartland Championship yet to have a loss.

Canterbury and Tasman both staved off the challengers of Championship division teams Hawke’s Bay and Wellington in the latest round of the ITM Cup.

Canterbury had seen off the Magpies by halftime when they took a 22-0 lead into the oranges after a clinical burst of attacking rugby. The Lambs went on to win 29-14. Hawke’s Bay could have been forgiven for having one eye on their Ranfurly Shield defence this coming Saturday against Bay of the Plenty.

Another sparse crowd at Westpac Stadium witnessed the Wellington Lions compete with the Makos for the first 47 minutes of the contest and lead 12-6. But it all unravelled with the Makos running in 30 points in as many minutes to seal a 36-17 win.

North Harbour continued their revival after a poor start to their Championship campaign, beating Counties Manukau 28-20, whilst defending Premiership champions Taranaki climbed to fourth on the table with a 32-9 win over the Steamers.

On Sunday, Auckland sealed a good 35-29 win over Otago, despite the latter’s blindside flanker Naulia Dawai scoring a hat-trick. Manawatu closed out the fifth round of men’s NPC matches by earning their first win of the season, a galloping win over Northland.

Defending champions the Auckland Storm earned their third straight win and Waikato their fourth in the Women’s NPC competition.

The Storm held off a fast-finishing Counties Manukau Heat side to win 35-29, after leading 25-0 at the interval. Counties Manukau are now third on the table with their first loss.

Waikato earned their fourth straight win when they beat the Manawatu Cyclones 35-15. Centre Stacey Waaka scored her eighth try of the season in this match.

Auckland and Waikato clash this coming weekend in Hamilton in probably the clash of the round across all three competitions.

The other two Women’s NPC fourth round results saw Canterbury defeat Otago 43-13 and Wellington beat Hawke’s Bay 43-18. Bay of Plenty had the bye.

In the Heartland Championship, defending champions Mid Canterbury won their fourth straight match on Saturday in beating West Coast 36-26.

The race to finish inside the top six and make the Meads Cup Championship round is heating up. Mid Canterbury sit on top of the standings on 17 points, with four teams separated by as many points napping at their heels.

One of these teams, Horowhenua-Kapiti, survived a scare by winless East Coast, who led with several minutes remaining only for Horowhenua-Kapiti first five-eighth Brandyn Laursen to skip over to score the match winning try and a 24-20 win.

Wanganui and South Canterbury both have three wins from four in the bank, the Wanganui Butcher Boys beating Buller 35-9 at home at Cooks Gardens and South Canterbury beating Wairarapa Bush 35-26 in Masterton.