Taranaki BEAT Wellington. Even the dairy cows are laughing!
It was worth the wait.
Twenty years of rugby pain were forgotten
as Taranaki celebrated its first win over Wellington in a national provincial championship rugby match.
Opportunist tries at the start of each half set Taranaki up for an emphatic 29-16 win and gave it the
perfect dress rehearsal for next Friday's Ranfurly Shield challenge against Canterbury in Christchurch providing the Cantabs
do the right thing and roll Otago tomorrow.
Taranaki's first try was an 80-metre
intercept by fullback Jack Cameron, with flanker Johnny Willis scoring the second after a Wellington lineout near its own
line went horribly wrong.
"We're pretty stoked. The boys dug deep today.
That's a huge victory for us," said Tenderlink Taranaki captain Tony Penn afterwards. "It's so good to finally get
a win over them. The team has been training and tracking along really well in the past couple of weeks."
The delight of the players was obvious when the final hooter sounded, with Willis jumping from the
bench and leading the subbed players on to the field as the crowd of close to 8000 exploded.
It was Taranaki's best performance of the season, and gives the amber and blacks four wins, a draw and two losses
from seven games.
The win lifted Taranaki from 14 points to 18 in the Air New
Zealand cup competition the same as Wellington with Taranaki slotting into the top four (at least until tonight's round of
games) courtesy of a better points differential.
The home crowd grew in voice
in the second spell as Taranaki stormed back from 16-13 down on the back of Willis' try and the boot of first five-eighth
Willie Ripia who slotted 19 points, missing only one shot at goal.
