Thames Valley Tallest in Meads Cup
Thames Valley: 37 (Laulea Mau 2, Te Huia Kutia, Oneone Fa’afou tries; Quinn Collard 4 cons, 3 pens) Mid Canterbury: 29 (Raitube Vasurakuta 2; Hugh Griffiths, Gordon Hausia tries; Thomas Reekie 3 cons, pen) HT: 20-8
Thames Valley are Meads Cup champions for the second time after resisting a gallant Mid Canterbury 37-29 in front of a boisterous crowd at Boyd Park, Te Aroha.
There were five lead changes in an enthralling spectacle that Thames Valley took firm control of the 55th minute.
Behind 22-20, the hosts employed the approach that had seen them lead 20-8 at halftime. Quick, aggressive, constructive phases were built with holes punched close to the Mid Canterbury ruck. Blindside flanker Laulea Mau busted down the right wing and was pulled down a nostril hair short of the paint. Tighthead prop Te Huia Kutia arrived with gusto and crashed over to make it 25-22.
Mau was rampant in the first half scoring both of the Swamp Foxes tries. The most dominant personality in the second spell was Quinn Collard. In the 57th minute, the Waihi Athletic fullback kicked a 50/22. That allowed Thames Valley to launch a lineout drive from which hooker Oneone Fa’afou muscled over europhically. Collard nailed a sideline conversion and four minutes later hammered over a 45m penalty to complete a spotless seven out of seven from the tee.
Mid Canterbury refused to surrender and a 67th-minute try to reserve hooker Gordon Hausia revived hopes of an improbable comeback. It came after a weaving 20m run from reserve flanker Lote Nagisa Mhember who provided a huge impact.
But Thames Valley led by Cam Dromgool, (celebrating his 50th match) was committed and disruptive on defence repelling repeat attacks until the 80th minute.
Thames Valley was much the stronger side in the first half, their set-piece paving the way for an advantage of a dozen.
Mid Canterbury rallied after the interval with two outstanding tries to wingers Raitube Vasurakuta and Hugh Griffiths. Fullback Ben Innes and first five-eighth Thomas Reekie were influential in their creation. Vasurakuta had a storming match ably supported by blindside flanker Kaydis Hona. There were yellow cards for McGregor Best (Mid Canterbury, 47th minute) and Finn McCall (Thames Valley, 77th minute).
Thames Valley last hosted a major final when the Paeroa Domain staged Poverty Bay in the third division final on October 14, 1995. The Swamp Foxes ran rampant that day in a 47-8 victory. Thames Valley were also third division champions in 1988 and 1990.
Thames Valley won the Meads Cup in 2018 when they upset South Canterbury 17-12 in the final in Timaru and has beaten Mid Canterbury 13 times in 25 meetings stretching back to 1964. In the Heartland Championship Thames Valley has an overall record of 68 wins, 85 defeats, and three draws.
King Country Lochore Cup Champions after Extra Time Epic
King Country: 46 (Latrell Smiler-Ah Kiong, Leveson Gower, Cordy Nordstrom 2, Logan Paterson, Liam Rowlands tries; Patrick Hedley 5 con, 2 pens) West Coast: 44 (Troy Tauwhare, Jack Ray, Ben Alexander, Jacob Mitchell, Quinn Johnsen, Sean McClure tries; Jacob Waikari-Jones 4 cons, 2 pens,) HT: 17-15
King Country are Lochore Cup champions for the first time since 2015 after a staggering 46-44 victory over West Coast at Rugby Park, Te Kūiti. It took a hundred minutes and eight lead changes to finally separate the two unions.
In the last minute of regulation time, West Coast was down 34-29, battering away repeatedly at the hosts' line. Eventually, reserve flanker Quinn Johnsen dived through the middle of the ruck and scored 10m in from touch.
Had first five-eighth Jacob Waikari-Jones landed the conversion West Coast would have been champions. Cruelly the ball cannoed off the left-hand upright and sprayed across the front of the posts.
The visitors carried on the momentum in extra time and after six minutes of honest, gut-busting industry, earned a penalty which Waikari-Jones kicked to make it 37-34.
Spurred on by a feverish home crowd, King Country summoned energy from a place few know. In the 88th minute, reserve prop Tom Ryan made an inspired charge to shift momentum. King Country cradled towards the corner flag and Logan Patterson wriggled over to give the Rams a 39-37 lead at halftime in extra time.
Ryan was proving an absolute menace and a breakdown turnover he secured from the otherwise redoubtable Ethan Simpson had West Coast anchored inside their 22.
Resolute and surgical forward thrusts followed with an overlap created. A lofted pass almost ruined that opening until captain and hooker Liam Rowlands, the size of a garden gnome, leaped like Hamish Kerr to secure the ball and bash through two defenders and score. Patrick Hedley kicked seven goals from eight attempts, including an early conversion that struck the top of the left-hand upright and bounced over.
West Coast wasn’t done. Collective expansive opened a hole for Sean McClure, in his 92nd match, to ferret clear. As the siren sounded Waikari-Jones nailed a sideline conversion to close the gap to 46-44.
King Country dispatched the restart into the West Coast 22. A dozen brave phases followed until a slight bobble terminated time 40m shy of the Rams' line.
It was tit for tat the whole way though West Coast opened up a 29-20 advantage after 55 minutes when wily player coaches Troy Tauwhare and Jared Mitchell combined for a try at the lineout.
King Country fullback Cody Nordstrom was a livewire. Yellow carded in the first half, he scored tries in the 58th and 63rd minutes to propel the Rams in front.
It was a momentous day for Aarin Dunster who celebrated his 150th match as a player and coach for King County. Dunster was King Country captain in 2015 when the Rams won their only previous Lochore Cup. The Rams Heartland Championship record is 63 wins, 89 defeats, and five draws.
Poverty Bay (2006 to 2008) is the only union to successfully defend the Lochore Cup.
Meanwhile, finals were introduced in the NPC in 1992. The first NPC semifinal went to extra time with Otago beating North Harbour after a Greg Cooper try. In 2012 Canterbury beat Taranaki 51-27 after extra time in a semi-final en route to the title. In 2014 Taranaki topped Auckland 49-30 in a semi on their way to Premerimship glory.
In all matches, King Country and West Coast are tied at ten wins apiece.
South Canterbury Stopped at Last
The longest winning streak in New Zealand first-class rugby was halted at Fraser Park, Timaru on October 12, 2024, when Mid Canterbury stunned South Canterbury 17-16 in a Meads Cup semi-final (1 v 4). South Canterbury had won 39 consecutive games without suffering defeat since October 2019 (1827 days ago) but blew a 16-6 lead after 71 minutes to succumb.
A 30m penalty kicked by second five-eighth Tom Reekie with 84:23 showing on the clock won Mid Canterbury the game. Reekie had kicked a 72nd-minute penalty to close the gap to seven. In the 74th minute, Raitube Vasurakuta (41 games, 28 tries, 22 wins) scored Mid Canterbury’s only try of the game.
According to the Rugby Database, the most consecutive wins in a New Zealand Provincial competition are 39 South Canterbury (2019-24), 36 Hawke’s Bay (2001-04), 27 Auckland (1989-91), 25 Auckland (1986-88), 21 Wanganui (2015-17) and 19 Wellington (2022-23).
In all competitions, the longest winning streak in New Zealand first-class rugby belongs to Auckland who won 34 games in a row from 1987 to 1989. Following a loss to New South Wales in Sydney in 1989 they bettered that record with an unbeaten streak of 45 games from 1987-1991. Auckland holds the women’s record for most wins in a row with 71 between 1994 and 2006.
South Canterbury’s overall record since 2019 is 48 wins, six defeats and two draws. That includes three Meads Cup and a Lochore Cup final win as well as two Ranfurly Shield challenges.
Mid Canterbury’s Heartland Championship record is 95 wins, 68 defeats, and two draws. Mid Canterbury won consecutive Meads Cup finals in 2013 and 2014.
West Coast Record
West Coast had a wild 52-51 win in their Lochore Cup semi-final over Horowhenua Kapiti in Levin, the hosts scoring the most points by any side to lose a Heartland Championship match.*
With time up on the clock, the visitors were down 47-51 when they had two scrums and two hold-ups over the try line. Finally, the Horowhenua Kapiti defence cracked when Jamie Garland rushed over jubilantly for his third try. Garland had only scored four tries in his previous 30 appearances.
Earlier West Coast hooker Troy Tauwhare had scored two tries. The tenth man to play 100 Heartland Championship games passed Ken Beams as the Coast’s highest all-time try scorer with 28. With six conversions fullback Jacob Waiari-Jones equalled Lesley Martin’s 1933 record for most conversions in a match by a West Coast player.
Tauwhare was a major architect of Kiwi’s (Hokitika) phenomenal 93-match winning streak in the Wallsend-Taylorville Estates Cup.
*45 points was the previous high score by a losing team in the Heartland Championship. On September 14 Thames Valley beat Ngāti Porou East Coast 60-45 and Horowhenua Kapiti beat Wairarapa Bush 62-45.
Bill Osborne Taonga
King Country became the first team to win the Taonga, lose it, and reclaim it in the same season. They lifted the Taonga from Buller with a 54-27 win over Buller in Westport on August 24 but lost it seven days later after a 23-18 loss to Thames Valley in Te Kuiti.
On October 5, King Country challenged Whanganui for the Taonga at Cooks Garden and won a stunning 34-17 upset victory. The win, set up by two tries each from Fijian wing Apete Matai and No 8 Caleb Foote, also saw the Rams retain the Colin Meads Memorial Trophy but could not lift them into the Meads Cup semifinals.
Meanwhile, finals were introduced in the NPC in 1992. The first NPC semifinal went to extra time with Otago beating North Harbour after a Greg Cooper try. In 2012 Canterbury beat Taranaki 51-27 after extra time in a semi-final en route to the title. In 2014 Taranaki topped Auckland 49-30 in a semi on their way to Premerimship glory.
The 2017 championship final was won by Wellington 59-45 over Bay of Plenty was decided in extra time. The 2018 Premiership final also went to extra time with Auckland beating Canterbury 40-33.