Wanganui clear winner over Mid Canterbury

Wanganui emerged a 30-17 victor over Mid Canterbury in their Meads' Cup semi-final at Cooks Gardens.

The home side scored five tries and had too much fire power for a Mid Canterbury side that showed plenty of endeavour but ultimately came up short.

Mid Canterbury started strongly and opened the scoring with an early penalty to first five-eighths David Maw. Unfortunately for the visitors, they failed to fully take advantage of the strong tail wind and in fact it proved to be somewhat of a curse as Maw overcooked his next few kicks and in doing so handed the home side quality possession in good field position.

Wanganui accepted the unexpected generosity by crossing the line three times to blow the game wide open at 17-3.

Wings Asalei Tikoirotunga and Pati Fetuiai were the beneficiaries of some great team manoeuvres. The third went to fullback Atreria Ateria who capitalised on a chip in behind the Mid Canterbury defensive line to score under the posts. Second five-eighths Steelie Koro converted with his third attempt.

With the home crowd happy and the game looking all but over the visitors signalled their intent, playing with an intensity that had not been seen to date as they began to eat away at Wanganui's lead.

Maw's successive penalties reduced the deficit to eight before a try to half back David Woods on the stroke of half time displayed Mid Canterbury's resurgence as they went to the break down by only 17-14.

The increased pace of the second half took its toll as the sides traded errors before Tikoirotunga scored his second try on the hour mark putting Wanganui up eight. But a mistake from the kick off undid the good work as Maw slotted his fourth penalty for the visitors to bring the score back to 22-17.

Five minutes later Wanganui went up by 10 with replacement hooker Cole Baldwin finishing off a break from half back Denning Tyrell to barrel over the line.

With seven minutes remaining the buffer became 13 with Koro's first penalty effectively killing off the game. Mid Canterbury's late forays came to nothing as Wanganui emerged deserved 30-17 victors and in doing so secured home field advantage for next week's final against Wairarapa Bush.

Wanganui 30 (Asaeli Tikoirotuma 2 tries, Ateria Ateria, Cole Baldwin, Pati Fetuia 1 try, Steelie Koro 1 con, Koro 1 pen) Mid Canterbury 17 (David Woods try, David Maw 4 pen)
HT: 17-14 Wanganui