Taranaki claim title with clean sweep

TARANAKI are the 2021 NPC Championship winners, having defeated Otago 32-19 in the final in Inglewood yesterday.

In hot conditions and under a cloudless sky, Taranaki got the result most expected and completed a 10-game clean sweep.

But unless there’s a reconfiguration of the NPC next year, which is possible, then Taranaki will be back in the second tier of provincial rugby in 2022. That fact may take some of the shine off this victory, but it shouldn’t be forgotten just how dominant Taranaki have been this year.

They won every game they’ve played, including victories over Tasman and Waikato, the teams playing in the Premiership final. So it could be argued that Taranaki are the best province in New Zealand this year and their dominance does highlight the absurdity of the current format.

But credit to Otago for making Taranaki battle hard for this win and their tight five were excellent in the forward exchanges.

Taranaki were on the board by the third minute with a try. The play started from a lineout on the left, the ball was moved along the backline, with a couple of nice cut out passes and it resulted in a try to loosehead prop Jared Proffit.

But two minutes later Otago’s Josh Hill charging down a clearance kick from Stephen Perofeta, then picked up the ball and scored untouched.

It was only a matter of time before Taranaki went back in front, with Daniel Waite scoring in the 19th minute, finishing off a well worked move.

After a Perofeta penalty Josh

Ioane threw a stunning no-look pass behind him to winger Vilimoni Koroi to set up Otago for their second try.

But in the penultimate minute of the half Taranaki lock Mickey Wooliams showed great strength to force himself over the line.

With a 22-12 lead to start the second half Taranaki had one hand on the trophy and they had a couple more fingers on it in the 44th minute when winger Kini Naholo chased down a through kick and grounded it in goal.

With 30 minutes to go

Taranaki first-five Jayson Potros was shown a yellow card for deliberately knocking the ball on under his team’s posts to stop Otago from scoring.

Otago quickly made Taranaki pay as Ioane hit the line at pace to score.

But resolute Taranaki defence as the clock ticked down denied Otago any hope of a comeback.