Depleted Tasman beaten by Taranaki
It's hard enough taking on Taranaki at Yarrow Stadium fully loaded.
To do it with 14 men is courting disaster.
So when the Tasman Makos had right winger Viliami Lolohea red-carded for a second dangerous tackle on his opposite Seta Tamanivalu after just 25 minutes of their Mitre 10 Cup premiership rugby clash on Thursday, the writing appeared clearly on the wall.
Taranaki's Marty McKenzie looks to beat the tackle of Tasman's Trael Joass.
In hindsight, and with Tasman at one stage reduced to 13 men in the second half, it was no huge surprise that Taranaki eventually cruised to a 40-26 win, eventually outscoring Tasman by six tries to four.
It clearly wasn't the result Tasman had wanted although they still remain within the playoff zone with now just three games remaining.
Lolohea had already been yellow-carded by referee Angus Mabey in just the fourth minute and Taranaki were quick to strike, centre Sean Wainui lunging over from the resulting attacking lineout for an early 7-0 lead.
Taranaki flanker Lachlan Boshier scores a try under pressure from Tasman halfback Billy Guyton.
A depleted Tasman showed admirable character to respond almost instantly through a try to hooker Andrew Makalio. However, the night got decidedly worse for both Lolohea and Tasman when the winger repeated the same indiscretion about 20 minutes later, Tamanivalu again the victim in his 50th NPC match, leaving Mabey no choice but to issue Lolohea a red card.
Already behind 14-5 following an earlier try to Taranaki second five-eighth Johnny Fa'auli off a slick break by irrepressible first five-eighth Stephen Perofeta, Tasman were inevitably exposed once again when flanker Lachlan Boshier added Taranaki's third try for an ominous 21-5 lead.
Fellow flanker Pita Sowakula scored Taranaki's bonus point try just minutes later to pile even more pressure on Tasman at 28-5. But Tasman continued to fight, with midfielder Alex Nankivell crossing in the 45th minute of the half to reduce the margin to 28-12 at the break.
Their confidence by now sky-high, Taranaki were unrelenting after the restart, a try to No 8 Toa Halafihi pushing the home team's lead out to 33-12.
Experienced captain and lock Alex Ainley epitomised Tasman's spirit by replying with his team's third try to again reduce Taranaki's lead to 33-19. But Tasman couldn't leave the self-destruct button alone and were amazingly reduced to 13 men when fullback Will Jordan was yellow-carded for illegally slapping down a Taranaki ball.
From there it was game over, Wainui adding his second try as Taranaki's backs sensed a lolly scramble against the badly-depleted Makos. Tasman showed plenty of resolve though as their backs continued to move the ball and find some holes in a previously accurate Taranaki defence.
Frustrated Tasman head coach Leon MacDonald said that indiscipline "cut us off at the knees".
"Six penalties and a red card within the first 25 minutes is pretty hard to come back from," he said. "We didn't really give ourselves a chance is about the only way you can describe it.
"I think we actually won the second half with only 13 men for part of that ... I suppose there's something we can take out of a pretty average night.
"We struggled to get any of our game going really. It's pretty frustrating, we had a really good week and prepared pretty well and didn't put it on the track, so I think we'll all be pretty disappointed with the night's effort."
One area where Tasman could claim some dominance was at scrum time where the Makos' pack held court. And they at least earned the satisfaction of a try-scoring bonus point when No 10 Mitch Hunt crossed with around eight minutes remaining.
"The scrum was better ... at times it was dominant and I thought our lineout maul d[efence] was a lot better and they're two areas that we've worked hard on, so we can be very happy with that.
"But generally our handling and decision-making was pretty average and our defence gave them far too many tries."
And against a confident and organised Taranaki side, 14 men just clearly just ain't enough.
AT A GLANCE
Taranaki 40 (Sean Wainui 2, Johnny Fa'auli, Lachlan Boshier, Pita Sowakula, Toa Halafihi tries, Marty McKenzie 5 con) Tasman 26 (Andrew Makalio, Alex Nankivell, Alex Ainley, Mitch Hunt tries, Billy Guyton 2 con, Tim O'Malley con) HT: 28-12.
