Devan Flanders in action for Hawke's Bay against Wellington. Photo: Paul Taylor / action press
Hawke's Bay have moved up to fourth on the NPC ladder with an emphatic 45-19 win over Wellington.
The result also means the defending champions languish in 10th place and are in serious danger of not even making the play-offs.
Miracle Faiilagi, who is proving to be one of the best pick-ups in the competition this season, opened the scoring for the Magpies after six minutes, when he rumbled over from a lineout drive. Stanley Solomon answered back for Wellington with a slick try five minutes later, but any hopes of gaining parity were dashed, when Tom Parsons scored to pull Hawke's Bay away.
Parsons was playing in his 100th match for his province, and perhaps that motivated them to simply dominate possession and make the most of Zarn Sullivan's monster boot. Lukas Ripley - who came off the bench after only two minutes, due to an head assessment to Nick Grigg - then scored to push Hawke's Bay past a two-score lead, which extended, when Harry Godfrey tacked on a penalty before the break.
Jonah Lowe made it a 31-7 lead after an hour and, despite a mini comeback that saw tries to Tjay Clark and Esi Komaisavai, Wellington just didn't have enough time left to pull off something special.
They eventually ran out of gas anyway, with Andrew Tautevalu and Cooper Flanders adding some more misery to the scoreline.
Hawke's Bay head to Tauranga next weekend for an intriguing match-up with sixth-placed Bay of Plenty, while Wellington only have until Thursday to figure out their issues, when they travel to Whangarei to meet ninth-placed Northland.
Read how the match unfolded here:
