Job done for the Otago Spirit. They beat Harbour 31-22 in the Farah Palmer Cup championship semifinal in Dunedin this afternoon.
That has seen them book a home final against Northland, who beat Wellington 29-24 in the other semifinal in Whangarei.
The Spirit played an attacking brand of rugby, which has rewarded them with good results all season.
Midfield pairing Naomi Sopoaga and Charlotte Va’afusuaga were impressive.
They brushed off countless tackles and danced through gaps, creating chaos for Harbour.
The captain Greer Muir got stuck in again.
Sarah Jones turned in another quality performance on the side of the scrum.
Props Isla Pringle and Eilis Doyle battled hard.
But there is plenty to work on for the Spirit.
They received three yellow cards and their effort faded at the back end of the game.
Assistant coach Marty Hurring was thrilled the Spirit had given themselves a shot at the title.
“Obviously, that was the aim at the start of the season and we’ve achieved that,” he said.
“It’s a great result for the Spirit. But credit to Harbour who stayed in there and has got some positive wins this season.”
He was disappointed with the number of cards dished out in the game. There were four in total and Otago got three of them.
The referees have been hard on high tackles this year, but Hurring said the Spirit needed to adjust and get their tackles down.
He was not so worried about the finish. Harbour roared back with a series of late tries.
The Spirit had made several changes and “we lost our structure and we probably lost our mentality a wee bit”.
Of more concern for Otago is the health of key lock Leila Hill.
She came off partway through the first half with a shoulder injury, and Hurring said it was unlikely she would be fit in time for the final next weekend.
“She is a massive loss for us. She’s got the most tackles in the FPC.”
Hill is also the Spirit’s main lineout target and she adds porridge to a scrum which was under pressure against Harbour.
Jones created a couple of early chances for the home side with a line break and clever offload, and Doyle got over the line but could not get it down.
Harbour scrambled but spent most of the opening quarter pinned deep in their territory.
It was exhausting work and eventually Harbour ran out of defenders.
Muir and Pringle made strong carries and makeshift first five Abigail Paton just had to collect the pass and dive over.
Jones scored next. She muscled through several tackles and reached out.
The half did not go all Otago’s way. Hill’s replacement, Rikki Fitzgerald, was shown a yellow card for deliberately slapping the ball down.
Sopoaga got a yellow for a dangerous tackle moments later and Otago were forced to defend the final few minutes of the half with 13 players.
Prop Manutala’aho Huni-Po’ese crashed over and incredibly, they went into the break trailing 14-7, despite having been thoroughly outplayed.
The referee dug into her pocket for another yellow early in the second half, but this time it was Harbour lock Lottie Collis who was marched for a high tackle.
Otago now had an extra player and they worked it left to winger Jamie Church, who scored in the corner.
The Spirit had extracted themselves from a tricky spot and were able to build on their lead with tries to Sopoaga and Muir.
But Harbour just kept fighting and tries to playmakers Ellie Harrison and Ella Henderson kept them within reach.
The scores
Otago 31 (Abigail Paton, Sarah Jones, Jamie Church, Naomi Sopoaga, Greer Muir tries; Georgia Cormick 2, Jones con), North Harbour 22 (Ellie Harrison 2, Manutala’aho Huni-Po’ese, Ella Henderson tries; Henderson con). Halftime: 14-7.
