NPC: Forgotten All Black Pita Gus Sowakula and Kaylum Boshier lead Taranaki to 28-13 win over Northland

At Northland Events Centre, Whangārei: Taranaki 28 (Stephen Perofeta, Jared Proffit, Kaylum Boshier 2 tries; Josh Jacomb 4 con) Northland 13 (Jonah Mau’u, try; Daniel Hawkins 1 con, 2 pen) HT: 14-10.

Sin binned: Brady Rush 15th min

Forgotten All Black Pita Gus Sowakula and Kaylum Boshier have helped power Taranaki to a 28–13 bonus point victory over Northland on Wednesday night.

Despite an error-ridden performance from Taranaki, they were able to see off a determined Northland in a low-quality National Provincial Championship match to round out the opening round.

Sowakula, making his return for Taranaki, was strong on the carry and defensively all night long from the back of the scrum and Boshier picked up from where he left off in the victory over Counties Manukau at the weekend.

Boshier, who was seemingly everywhere in broken play, in addition to getting through his usual hefty workload at the breakdown, scored another two tries backing up from his brace at the weekend.

In other performances that might have interested All Blacks coach Ian Foster, fringe All Black Stephen Perofeta made a couple of classy touches but didn’t have quite the impact on the game that he would have hoped for, at fullback for Taranaki, before being replaced with 17 minutes to play.

And former All Blacks midfielder Jack Goodhue had some strong touches on both sides of the ball for Northland in a backline that didn’t get much front-foot ball.

Northland were brave in defeat, most especially when they defended 21 phases on their own line late in the second half but in reality, Taranaki only had themselves to blame for not winning by a bigger margin.

Jonah Mau’u, who was named to start on the bench but became a late call-up for Saimoni Uluinakauvadra, opened the scoring after pouncing on his own charge down from an attempted Perofeta clearing kick.

Perofeta then hit back for Tarankai after Brady Rush was given a yellow card for a deliberate knockdown.

Taranaki blew a mountain of chances in the first half where they dominated possession and territory but loosehead prop Jared Proffit barged over from close range to give the visitors the lead at the break, after Northland had edged ahead through a Daniel Hawkins penalty.

By half-time, Taranaki held the possession edge 72%-28% and territory 66%-34% after spending more than four and a half minutes in Northland’s 22-metre zone.

Outstanding Kaylum Boshier scored a controversial try that appeared to come from a knock on but referee Angus Mabey called play on despite the boos from the Northland crowd.

The big picture

Both teams will be on the quick backup on Sunday for round two of the NPC as part of their storm week. The unbeaten Taranaki will be chasing a third straight win in Palmerston North against Manawatū and Northland will hunt their first victory of the season in the deep south against Southland.