Marko the Mako says...
The Tasman Makos’ epic season continued with an historic Premiership Semi-Final victory over Canterbury in Nelson ion Saturday night. The 26 – 6 victory in front of 5,200 noisy and colourful fans was the team’s second victory of the vaunted Canterbury outfit in 3 weeks.
History was made this season with the first semi-final appearance by a promoted NPC team at any level and next Saturday’s Final appearance against Taranaki in New Plymouth will be a first Final for either Union.
There is no doubt that the Tasman fan base in both Blenheim and Nelson has grown an arm and a leg this season. Our fans are knowledgeable and appreciative of good play and are now more than happy to show their support vocally. The number of fans wearing the team colours has increased enormously this season. As Shane Christie acknowledged post-match on Saturday, our crowds have been amazing and the team feeds of you. Fins Up to all you Fin-atics!!
Tasman 26 (James Lowe, Jimmy Cowan tries, Marty Banks 4 pens, 2 cons) v Canterbury 6 (Tom Taylor 2 pens) HT:17- 6
The match itself was a remarkably confident and mature display of rugby by Tasman and an uncharacteristically quiet performance by Canterbury. The Tasman defence was relentless and continually put the Cantabs on the back foot which hardly allowed them to fire a shot all night.
The Tasman attack was structured without losing any of its pace and entertaining aspects however the players seemed more considered at the breakdown with much fewer off-loads and 'risk and reward' plays than normal.
There were quality player performances across the park but none were better than our captain, Shane Christie, who led from the front all evening, continually made it across the advantage line and was relentless in the tackle. It will be of no surprise to anyone that the team named him their Mako Man for the week and the coaches made him their Iron Man for defence.
So the the Makos have one more game which is this Saturday at 7.35pm at Yarrow Stadium, New Plymouth. Tickets are available on the Taranaki website - http://trfu.co.nz/
MAKOS BARS showing the match live on SkySport 1 are the Turf Hotel Sports Bar in Stoke, the Wakatu Hotel & Vic Brew Bar in Nelson and Fairweather's in Blenheim.
Fins Up, Marko
