Reviewing Round 4 of the Bunnings NPC

The home sides largely dominated in Round 4 of the Bunnings NPC with big wins coming for Canterbury and Waikato in particular. 

Canterbury knocked over Tasman on the latter’s home turf with a 52-20 victory in a game which yielded 10 tries (7 for the visitors and 3 for the hosts). 

Waikato brushed Manawatu aside in merciless fashion with a final score of 53-6. Waikato ran in seven tries and showed such tight defence that their opponents were unable to cross the whitewash.  

Hawke’s Bay and North Harbour locked horns in a tight battle which ended with a score of 25-23 in the former’s favour. Each side managed to string together three tries and knock over two penalties and in the end it was just one conversion serving as the difference between the teams. 

Auckland put together a convincing, 35-17 victory against Otago, running in four tries while limiting their opposition to two. 

Bay of Plenty’s discipline let them down against Counties Manukau. Despite scoring two tries to Counties’ zero, the latter managed to slot a total of six penalties to snatch a 18-13 victory. 

Wellington were in good form against Taranaki and managed to forge a 31-25 win, scoring five tries to Taranaki’s three.  

The Northland/Southland derby ended in a 32-19 win for the former who crossed the whitewash four times and slotted two penalties.