Waikato still winless

Joy! Tasman players celebrate their win

Tasman continued the trend of upsets in this year's Air New Zealand Cup by seeing off an average-looking Waikato outfit 16-14 in Hamilton on Friday.

Trailing for the majority of the second half, it took an 80th minute drop-goal from Tasman fly-half Miah Nikora to win the game for the Makos and keep Waikato winless in the tournament.

This is the second time Tasman has played Waikato and the first victory they have had over the Mooloo men.

Waikato can at least be happy a full house didn't turn up to watch their team throw away their second match on the trot.

Perhaps the good folk of Hamilton had been tipped off ahead of the rugby match in the city.

Tasman were much the better side and led at the interval after an encouraging performance by their forwards.

Waikato barely fired a shot in the first half, trailing 9-13 after three penalties from fly-half Callum Bruce kept them in the game going into the break.

The Tasman pack worked as one to win a steady stream of possession and the visitors as a whole exhibited a superior pattern and structure as they dominated both possession and territory.

Typical Waikato rushing defence soon proved to be its downfall as a player slipped over and allowed Tasman to expose the gap and score the first points of the match through inside centre Joel Iggo.

Iggo's midfield partner Andrew Goodman made the initial break before offloading to full-back Robbie Malneek, who then found Iggo for the opening score.

The conversion was made by Nikora who took the score to 7-0 after fifteen minutes of play.

An illegal early tackle on Waikato full-back Dwayne Sweeney allowed Bruce to slot a penalty and narrow the score to 7-3.

Nikora and Bruce traded another three points apiece, before the latter brought the score to 10-9 with just moments to go before the break.

Tasman were to have the last say however when Nikora added another penalty goal on the stroke of half-time.

Waikato immediately jolted the visitors after the restart, taking just 57 seconds to hit the lead via a try to flanker Tom Harding, who capped a sweeping move from inside Waikato's 22.

The ball went through six pairs of hands, including those of wing Tim Mikkelson, who surged down the left-hand touchline, before it was relayed to Harding to dot down.

In the space of one minute, Waikato looked more threatening than they had for the previous 40, and their forwards at last started to show the level of intensity required of them.

But Tasman continued to play with patience, although two chances to regain the lead came to nothing as Nikora was astray with penalty attempts, before his decisive 80th minute contribution.

The victory couldn't have come at a better time for the troubled Tasman, who are one of the present provinces set to be axed in the Air New Zealand Cup reshuffle ahead of the 2009 season.

The win won't help their fall from provincial top-flight rugby, but it will signal a big middle finger to the bigwigs who have seemingly made the decision to drop them.

The scorers:

For Waikato:

Try: Harding

Pens: Bruce 3

For Tasman:

Try: Iggo

Con: Nikora

Pens: Nikora 2

Drop-goal: Nikora

Waikato: 15 Dwayne Sweeney, 14 Sosene Anesi, 13 Jackson Willison, 12 Roimata Hansell-Pune, 11 Tim Mikkelson, 10 Callum Bruce, 9 David Bason, 8 Liam Messam (c), 7 Tom Harding, 6 Faifili Levave, 5 Kevin O'Neill, 4 Toby Lynn, 3 Aled de Malmanche, 2 Oli Avei, 1 Craig West.

Replacements: 16 Hikairo Forbes, 17 Josh Hohneck, 18 Kent Fife, 19 Jordan Smiler, 20 Josh Sutherland, 21 Trent Renata, 22 James Kamana.

Tasman: 15 Robbie Malneek, 14 Blair Cook, 13 Andrew Goodman (c), 12 Joel Iggo, 11 Afeleki Pelenise, 10 Miah Nikora, 9 Kahn Fotuali'i, 8 Mark Bright, 7 Jack Lam, 6 Jonathon Poff, 5 Alex Ainley, 4 Will Crutchley, 3 Ben Franks, 2 Daniel Perrin, 1 Ben May.

Replacements: 16 Quentin MacDonald, 17 Tristan Moran, 18 Steve Jackson, 19 Glen Gregory, 20 Lualua Vailoaloa, 21 Mike Pehi, 22 Jams Marshall.

Referee: Kelvin Deaker

TMO: Ben Skeen