Tasman shock Canterbury

Tasman upset reigning champions Canterbury on Saturday, shocking the giants 27-25 at Trafalgar Park in Nelson.

Impressively there were more than 10,000 spectators at the venue where the Makos went out strongly to gain a fourteen-point half-time advantage.

However, Canterbury hit back to make it a testing and nerve-racking end to the contest for the hosts, who did well to hold on and claim a memorable win.

Canterbury had opened the scoring after just six minutes when winger Telusa Veainu collected a slick grubber kick by Stephen Brett, with good earlier work also done by Sean Maitland. Colin Slade converted the extra two points.

But the lead did not last long Tasman worked a nice move that allowed Tom Marshall to cruise over the try-line. Steve Alfeld kicked the simple extras to bring things back to 7 apiece.

Soon after, Tasman capitalised on an error in judgement from Brett that saw him find opposing wing James Kamana. He duly ran over without a hand laid on him and with Alfeld's conversion the scores were 14-7.

Canterbury thought they had responded when Isaac Ross got over the whitewash on 28 minutes, but Maitland's set-up pass was forward and Tasman then added another three points a little later.

To make matters worse, the bigger-named side then had their task grow in size when hooker Francis Smith powered his way over for another Tasman score. But Alfeld's conversion miss left the scores at 24-7 after 36 minutes.

Slade got Canterbury back on the board to leave the arrears at 24-10 at half-time but their task was made tougher soon after the break when Robbie Fruean was sin-binned for an infringement at the breakdown. Alfeld's penalty extended the lead to 27-10 and from there it was all about holding on.

For Tasman:
Tries: T Marshall, Kamana, Smith
Con: Alfeld (3)
Pen: Alfeld (2)

For Canterbury:
Tries: Veainu, Ellis, Fualau
Con: Slade (2)
Pen: Slade (2)

Tasman: 15 Robbie Malneek, 14 Blair Cook, 13 Kade Poki, 12 Tom Marshall, 11 James Kamana, 10 James Marshall, 9 Steve Alfeld, 8 Joseph Wheeler, 7 Jonathan Poff, 6 Poutasi Luafutu,5 Chris Jack (c), 4 Glen Gregory, 3 Fai Mika, 2 Francis Smith, 1 Sam Prattley.
Replacements: 16 Vernon Fredericks, 17 Hamish Cochrane, 18 Anthony Elisala, 19 Shane Christie, 20 Kaide Whiting, 21 Sione Holani, 22 Jack Umaga.

Canterbury: 15 Sean Maitland, 14 Sam Monaghan, 13 Robbie Fruean, 12 Stephen Brett, 11 Telusa Veainu, 10 Colin Slade, 9 Takarei Norton; 8 Ash Parker, 7 George Whitelock (c), 6 Matt Todd, 5 Isaac Ross, 4 Luke Romano, 3 Andrew Olorenshaw, 2 Steve Fualau, 1 Wyatt Crockett.
Replacements: 16 Paul Ngauamo, 17 Peter Borlase, 18 Rob Verbakel, 19 Nasi Manu, 20 Andy Ellis, 21 Robbie Flynn, 22 Patrick Osborne.