Canterbury clinch homefield advantage with come-from-behind win against Auckland

At Eden Park, Auckland: Canterbury 27 (Georgia Ponsonby 2, Martha Mataele 2 tries; Hannah King 2 con, pen) Auckland 24 (Chryss Viliko 2 tries, Sylvia Brunt tries; Ruahei Demant 2 con, pen). HT: 10-21

Reigning champions Canterbury have locked up the all-important top-seed headed into the Farah Palmer Cup playoffs.

Riddled by injury and sickness, the red and blacks pulled off a come-from-behind 27-24 win over Auckland in the top-of-the-table clash at Eden Park on Saturday afternoon.

Canterbury had trailed 14-0 early, and 21-10 at halftime, and appeared to be headed for their first defeat against Auckland since 2017.

However, wing Martha Mataele and hooker Georgia Ponsonby scored braces as they roared back into a contest which included some quality tries, but also a ton of handling errors from both sides.

Having knotted the game up at 24-24 after 61 minutes, young Canterbury pivot Hannah King earned a crunch breakdown penalty in front of the sticks, before booting over the decisive penalty shot.

It was redemption for King, who earlier missed two straight-forward conversions after Mataele ran in two tries in quick succession, one of them a 45m dash after she pounced on a loose ball.

Armed with a host of Black Ferns, including Ruahei Demant and Sylvia Brunt, Auckland had started the rematch of last year’s final well, with Brunt and prop Chryss Viliko powering the hosts out to an early 14-0 lead.

After Canterbury hit back twice through Mataele, Viliko caught the visitors napping at a ruck and sprinted under the sticks to bag her second of the day.

However, courtesy of their superior lineout, and a couple of Ponsonby tries via their maul, Canterbury fought their way back into a match they were without a bunch of star players for.

That included midfielder Grace Brooker, lock Chelsea Bremner, pivot Rosie Kelly, outside back Grace Steinmetz, and loose forward Marcelle Parkes.

In pursuit of a second straight crown, Canterbury will host Hawke’s Bay in next week’s semifinal, while Auckland will face Waikato, who could yet clinch a home semifinal if they beat Wellington on Sunday.