Mooloo men win again

Aled de Malmanche is mobbed by team-mates after scoring his try

Waikato's juggeernaut is finally rolling, as the Mooloo men picked up a second win in the Air New Zealand Cup on Sunday, beating Counties Manukau 20-15 in Hamilton.

There were numerous changes to the Waikato team from last week, but there was little impact on performance, and the home side opened the scoring after just three minutes with a scintillating try when Dwayne Sweeney set off on a mazy run before feeding James Kamana for a run to the line.

Waikato kept up the pressure, and eventually ran in a second score when prop Aled de Malmanche seized upon a loose ball and stormed over from ten metres.

Fly-half Callum Bruce's silly late tackle on his opposite number saw counties full-back Tim Nanai-Williams kick a penalty and make the score 12-3 with ten minutes to go to the break.

But Waikato dominated those ten minutes and were unlucky not to be further ahead by the time the hooter sounded.

Seven minutes into the second half they went further ahead, with Kamana again finishing off, this time a move started by promising young number eight Faifili Levave.

But Counties struck back with two tries in two minutes.

First a clever kick from fly-half Tasesa Lavea was collected by Siale Piutau who scored underneath the posts with Nanai-Williams adding the extra two.

Then the visitors scored again straight off the kick-off when blindside flanker Rupeni Nasiga gathered a loose ball and passed to Sherwin Stowers who dotted down although Nanai-Williams missed the equalising conversion.

Thereafter, Counties continued to throw the ball around and ask the questions, but a couple of handling errors put them under pressure, and Bruce missed a penalty, and then got one with eight minutes remaining to make the score 20-15.

Although the visitors put everything into the last desperate minutes, Waikato did enough to hold them out and claim the win.

The scorers:

For Waikato:

Tries: Kamana 2, De Malmanche

Con: Bruce

Pen: Bruce

For Counties Manukau:

Tries: Piutau, Stowers

Con: Nanai-Williams

Pen: Nanai-Williams

Waikato: 15 Sosene Anesi, 14 James Kamana, 13 Dwayne Sweeney, 12 Callum Bruce, 11 Tim Mikkelson, 10 Trent Renata, 9 Josh Sutherland, 8 Faifili Levave, 7 Matt Blain, 6 Liam Messam (c), 5 Kent Fife, 4 Toby Lynn, 3 Toby Smith, 2 Ole Avei, 1 Aled de Malmanche.

Replacements: 16 Vern Kamo, 17 Josh Hohneck, 18 Kevin O'Neill, 19 Jordan Smiler, 20 Tom Harding, 21 David Bason, 22 Roimata Hansell-Pune.

Counties Manukau: 15 Tim Nanai-Williams, 14 Lelia Masaga, 13 Niva Ta'auso, 12 Tasesa Lavea (c), 11 Siale Piutau, 10 Tanner Vili, 9 Samisoni Fisilau, 8 Fritz Lee, 7 DJ Forbes, 6 Rupeni Nasiga, 5 Andrew Van der Heijden, 4 Jamie Chipman, 3 Tuaefe Palelei, 2 Lance Po-ching, 1 Simon Lemalu/Jayden Murch.

Replacements: 16 Ilaisa Maasi, 17 Simon Lemalu/Jayden Murch, 18 Viliami Fihaki, 19 Gary Saifoloi/Mark Selwyn, 20 Kevin Farrell, 21 Sherwin Stowers/David Raikuna, 22 Romi Ropati

Referee: Brent Murray