21 Aug 2010

Tasman beat Canterbury for first time

5:40 pm on 21 August 2010

Tasman's upset Canterbury 27-25 in Nelson in round four of rugby's provincial champIonship.

It's Tasman's first win in five matches against the defending champions, who scored first through winger Telusa Veainu, only to concede three converted tries.

Backs Tom Marshall and James Kamana and hooker Francis Smith scored for Tasman and the Makos led 24-10 at half-time.

They had an anxious final 15 minutes though after Canterbury came back with tries to halfback Andy Ellis and hooker Steve Fualau.

But the handling and passing errors that cost Canterbury in the first half returned and Tasman held on in front of a near capacity crowd at Trafalgar Park.