Hawkes Bay thrashed Counties Manukau 54-8 in the Air New Zealand Cup on Thursday in Napier. Winger Zac Guildford once again took centre stage, scoring another hatrick. The try were featuring though comes from a surprising source.
The Counties Manukau Steelers led twice in the first half before being totally outplayed in the second. Zac Guildford, the young poacher who was a star at junior level, will surely be an end of year tourist with the All Blacks.
It was the boys in the front row though who provided the first half highlights. First it was Hawkes Bay prop Faka’anaua Taumalolo who scored a nice try following a series of pick-and-goes by his forwards.
Then, four minutes later, Steelers prop Simon Lemalu stole the show after a piece of sloppy passing from the Hawkes Bay backs gifted the turnover.
The ball reached the prop with a bit of space in front of him. Showing all the vision of an outside back, he stabbed through a clever grubber kick which sat up nicely for New Zealand Sevens captain DJ Forbes.
Lemalu chased the kick and followed up to accept the final pass from Forbes, before stepping and brushing aside the aforementioned Guildford.
Hawkes Bay came scored six tries in the second half, but it was this superb effort by the Counties Manukau front rower that will stick in the memory, and will be added to our archives as another great prop try.
Time:
01:38
Note:
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