(ITM) southland stunned in pukekohe,,,

A late try to Bundee Aki gave Counties-Manukau a decisive 30-9 bonus-point win over Southland in front of 2,000 boisterous fans at ECOLight Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
  Facing a superior pack, led by southern hard men Jason Rutledge and Jamie Mackintosh, the Steelers negated Southland's muscle by holding onto the ball for a 70 percent share of the possession.

With that possession, Counties caused havoc with its lethal back line that built on the confidence and form from two pre-season victories - against Waikato and Taranaki.

The visitors struggled to find inspiration on a special night for Rutledge and Gloucester-bound Jimmy Cowan. The former became the most capped Southland player in history but also gave away a game-changing try that the home side would not give back.

The Steelers were without inspirational captain DJ Forbes who injured a shoulder during a New Zealand sevens training camp, while Southland were forced to make do without flanker John Hardie (toe).

Counties capitalized on a dominant opening period, where they made a strong statement running with ball in hand from their own 22.

Advancing steadily into opposition territory, Kerr opened the Steelers' account with a penalty in the sixth minute after Sherwin Stowers was denied the opening try by referee Nick Briant.

Five minutes later, 23-year-old Kerr orchestrated another scoring play when his offload in close quarters put Fritz Lee through to score next to the posts.

The early pace set by Counties began to take a toll on the tiring Southland line.

For the visitors, it was always going to be about their men up front - whose tight running managed to slow the pace of play then earn a penalty which first-five Scott Eade converted to close the gap to seven.

A dominant Steelers scrum drew a penalty in the dying minutes of the opening spell. After electing to pack down once again, Fritz Lee finished off a sniping run by halfback August Pulu with his second four-pointer of the match.

Kerr's conversion sent the home side into the break with a nine-point cushion.

After the break, Counties invited pressure immediately with a miss-fired pass inside the 22, which lead to a penalty that Eade used to reduce the deficit by three.

In his milestone game for the Stags, Rutledge would have been embarrassed by his cameo in the backline when he delivered the ball into the hands of Steelers prop Simon Lemalu. The 118kg prop showed a clean pair of heels and ran 20 metres to score in the corner.

Facing a 16-point deficit, ill-discipline crept in the Stags' play and the penalty count- once firmly in the visitors' favour - began to equalise.

Despite numerous opportunities to firmly 'shut the door' on their Southern counterparts, Counties lacked the patience and composure needed to deliver the final blow.

Desperately searching for a bonus point try, second-five Aki set the field alight with his 30-metre solo effort to score within inches of the corner post.

Counties-Manuakau 30 (Fritz Lee 2, Simon Lemalu, Bundee Aki tries; Bayden Kerr 2 con, 2 pen)

Southland 9 (Scott Eade 3 pen)

HT: 18-6

southland reserve hooker brayden mitchell needs to work on basic fundamentals, but southladn rugby is looking good.

highlight for me in this match was when whopper jonah lomued mahorni schwalger,,,,pow, lol. awesome stufff.

sad to see my ITM get dusted in the opening round, but pick urselves up and dust it of boys and go hard next week. :)

GO SOUTHLAND STAGS!!!

Doesnt look like many people really care much about ITM

@chippo,

ur right there my bru, but after reading so many posts written by others with the sole purpose of sniping at others, i figured hey, why not ptomote the ITM here on my fave saffa rugby forum site???
besides, there might be the odd person who will be interested in how thelocal comp fares in gratest rugby nation in the world, aka NZ, :P

but i have labelled them with (ITM) at the start of every article to save my saffa bros the trouble of opening it incase they dont want too, now isnt that thoughtful of me??? :P

GO ALL BLACKS!!!

 I would have to agree. ITM is spam as it is not topical to us. We are interested in the Super15 just not the ITM. What or who is Puke Kohe- any relation to Luke?

@sharkbok,

like i said, theres been plenty of articles here that not only had nothing to do with rugby, but went against the very guidlines set by the administration, articles designed to fo nothing more then snipe at other fellow bloggers.

be that as it may, no ones putting a gun to ur head, so u dont have to read it, but considering that theres an (ITM) at the beginning of each article, is that not a clear enough sign as to the content of these articles??? dont know about u guys, but i dont read anything im not interested in, but hey thats just me and each to their own.

according to the sarugby guidelines, i am sweet as, but if ek says to stop it, then so be it. until such a time though, i will continue blogging, especially as there a plenty of people here interested, even if they are closet ITM fans, LMAO, :P

GO ALL BLACKS!!!
 

 @sas

Point well made and accepted.

If we not interested, just skip to next article.

@shark

Lewrn the definiTion of spam

Fairly predictable result sasu. Counties already beat Waikato and Taranaki in their warm ups....Everyone knows South Auckland is the centre of the rugby universe so expecting great things this year from the Steelers...Kura Hard...

 Thanks for the info Sasuke, maybe thins will give some of us a bit more perspective, It's always good to have knowledge about the old enemy :).

Your opinion as we are not that clued up on NTI history, How serious a long term surprise was this for the future or would you point to it as a one time thing? Good to hear of Jason rutledge and Jamie Mctintosh outside of the S15 as really i think they are 2 guys that should get more recognition. Maybe move to SA we like hard okes :)

@brycy,

lol, thats what i lvoe about the ITM, once the All Blacks flag comes down and we go back to our ITM tribes, its on like donkey kong, :P

so ur a jafa aye??? thought u might be from hamilton ways, but counties is a feeder club for the chiefs (i think???) so all good.
i think ur steelers are going back up to the premiership, they look to be the stornger the team, mahorni schwalger, tim nani williama, that african terminator daniel alongo from the bulls and one of my fave halfbacks augustine pulu.

no offence to the cheifs, but pulus being wated over there as he will be behind barlow and leonard, he needs to go to either highlanders or hurricanes where he can play second fiddle to aaron smith or tj perenara, but will at least be guarnteed regular game time. even the crusaders would be a good option, i rate him better then willy heinz, but 2013 looks like it will be heinz and ellis for the saders again.

dont know if u watched the game, but nani-williams looks better at fullback then he does on the wing, i wonder if rennie will continue to use robinson over him???

anyway, felt bad for my southland stags, even worse cos were on the bottom of the table which is a sad buzz and were the only team to not get a try,,,sigh, :(

GO SOUTHLAND STAGS!!!
 

counties has been playing some decent rugby in the warm ups so not a big surprize. the quality of the game was very good to watch for the neutral

@ek,

cheers bro, im a big fan of mackintosh and rutledge cos theyre from my neck of the woods. when mackintosh got his All Black debut against scotland, his parents who own a pub put up free beers to celebrate, i woke up the next morning in a police cell, LMAo,,i wasnt arrested, but the cops said i was too drunk and incoherent so they let me sleep it off in a cell, my flatmate and a friend woke up at a locals house and no one there can remember how anyone got home, lol,,,,oh good times, :)

but errr im not sure i understood this comment from u???,,,
"Your opinion as we are not that clued up on NTI history, How serious a long term surprise was this for the future or would you point to it as a one time thing?"

anyway, i wouldnt mid seeing a few kiwis play in SA, maybe they could play for the kings, cos it sounds like the locals are going to be booing them anyways, lol. :P