Tasman bounce back with win over Taranaki

Tasman have given themselves a chance of hosting one of next week's national provincial championship semifinals while Taranaki will head to Canterbury in an attempt to defend their premiership title.

Tasman, last year's beaten finalists proved too strong, more urgent and better equipped across the park for Taranaki in New Plymouth on Thursday as they ran out 35-17 winners.

Tasman will now sit back and wait and see if Counties Manukau can upset Auckland on Saturday. If that happens Tasman stay in second place.

It was an off key performance from Taranaki who missed far too many first up tackles and were off the pace for large parts of the game.

Tasman started brightly enough, Tent Renata slotting an early penalty before wing Viliami Lolohea had his side hot on attack following some flimsy Taranaki defence.

They failed to capitalise on their early momentum, however, and conceded rather easily after Charlie Ngatai helped set up Jackson Ormond for a long range try in just the seventh minute.

Lolohea was back in the action a couple of minutes later but had his try scrubbed by the television match official after Shane Christie crossed in front of a Taranaki defender.

Christie was busy in conversation with referee Kane McBride in the preceding 10 minutes as several more prime attacking positions were spoiled after players were penalised for taking opposing players past the breakdown.

It's a rule referees were supposed to be hot on from the start of the competition and collectively they must have been reminded about it because it has become enforced with a lot more vigour in recent rounds.

Still, Tasman's line speed on defence was causing Taranaki plenty of problems through the first half hour while the champions were guilty of falling off too many tackles, an area that has not been a problem in recent weeks.

Taranaki's scrum was also under pressure through the same period.

The energy levels were definitely raised in Tasman's favour, too, as they looked time and again the more potent side only to be undone by their own mistakes.

More Tasman mistakes had their under pressure early in the second half but questionable option taking and a lack of finishing saw Taranaki fail to take advantage.

An ankle injury to Codey Rei saw Ngatai land a rare penalty to give Taranaki a seven point buffer, a lead that was always going to be hard to protect, especially with Tasman's line speed shutting down any chance of going wide early.

That left Taranaki trying to find holes in and around the fringes of the ruck, a tactic that never paid real dividends.

Tasman's domination up front did, though, as Taranaki halfback Te Toiroa Tahuriorangi was hurried into a mistake from a Hika Elliot turnover and Quentin MacDonald pounced to level the scores.

They then took the lead after Angus Ta'avao was penalised when the Taranaki scrum was again under pressure.

They continued to heap the pressure on their hosts and were rewarded for their urgency with a couple of fortuitous tries to seal their deal.

While Taranaki threatened to narrow the gap when Berny Hall crossed, they conceded from the kick off following a loose pass on their line.

TASMAN 35 (Quentin MacDonald, Liam Squire, Vernon Fredericks, Kieron Fonotia tries; Trent Renata con, 2 pen, David Havili 2 con, pen) TARANAKI 17 (Jackson Ormond, Berny Hall tries; Codey Rei con, Charlie Ngatai pen, Liam McBride con). HT: 3-7