beaten by Cyclones

PETER JONES

The Tasman Mako women came crashing down to earth in Palmerston North on Sunday, blown away by the classy Manawatu Cyclones side 46-14.

After their big win over Taranaki last weekend Tasman travelled north in high spirits but were given a lesson in rugby basics by the unbeaten Farah Palmer Cup championship division leaders.

Tasman were competitive in the early stages, a brace of tries to in-form winger Fiaali’i Solomona keeping them within touch of a home side possessing a wealth of attacking threats.

However, missing a string of first-up tackles, coupled with some sloppy work at lineout time and a scrum under continual pressure, told in the long run as they battled to establish any sort of rhythm in attack. After 20 minutes Tasman trailed just 15-14 but by halftime Manawatu, guided expertly around the park by former Black Ferns star Selica Winitana, had pushed out to a 29-14 advantage.

The second spell saw more of the same, a torrential rainstorm not helping either side with handling and ball control.

Solomona was a bright light for a well-beaten side, along with loosie Neve Anglesey, halfback Lucy Brown and skipper Tamara Silcock. Silcock looked on the bright side, suggesting their defeat was “not as big a loss as we had last time”.

“We just didn’t defend like we needed to … [we also committed] small errors around the field and they capitalised on it. “We will be working on our defence this week I guess.” athlon endeavours and relished the opportunity to compete in some local events.

On Saturday, Tasman meet Northland in Blenheim, with a 2.05pm kick-off, before the teams move into play-off mode.

“It is just good to see where I am at … the course was a lot tougher than I thought. The first half is uphill, kinda false flats, then you have some off-road and a couple of hills that I didn’t expect. That was probably the toughest part of the course and from there it was a bit of a slog home.

Ed Massey won the 10km in a field of 30, in a time of 43.07, from Nikita Gane (45.55) and Zeke Hoskins (48.13). Cullum Rayner came home first in the 5km run, contested by 40, his time of 19.50 shading Corban McLennan (20.50) and Arlo Grogan (21.22).