Four bonus point winners in opening ITM Cup weekend

The first round of the 2015 ITM Cup is in the bag, with three Premiership teams and one Championship side underway with bonus point wins.

The season opened on Thursday night with a 23-23 draw in Invercargill between the Southland Stags and Auckland and closed on Sunday evening with a dominant Hawke’s Bay Magpies having defended the Ranfurly Shield.

See the results, scorers and points tables by visiting Draws & Results across the top of this page.

In between, there were first up bonus point wins for last year’s beaten finalists Tasman, Canterbury and Counties Manukau to set the benchmark in the Premiership division, whilst the Wellington Lions upset defending champions Taranaki and a former Wellington player, Chase Tiatia, scored two tries for Bay of Plenty against North Harbour.

On Thursday night, the Stags almost became the first Championship team of the year to beat a Premiership one, coming back from a 3-16 deficit to all but over-run the multiple champions.

On Friday night, the Makos sunk their teeth into Waikato, winning four tries to one in Hamilton. This was followed by the Steamers beating North Harbour 20-11 in Tauranga.

On Saturday afternoon, Wellington took a decisive 12-0 lead over Taranaki before the home side and newly named Bulls came back into the contest. But wing Joe Hill raced half the length of the field to clinch victory for the Lions and see them re-claim the John F Henning Trophy.

The Canterbury Lambs retained the Payne Shield off Otago by sailing to a 26-10 halftime lead and eventually winning 38-24. Fullback Tom Taylor scored 18 points, the most by any individual on the opening weekend.

On Sunday, the Counties Manukau Steelers were fast out of the gates, before Manawatu eventually closed to 19-14 at halftime. The Steelers pulled ahead once more, but the Turbos roared late to lost 35-36 and take two bonus points from this loss. For Counties-Manukau, right wing Tony Pulu scored a hat-trick.

In the match that followed this down in Napier, the home side the Hawke’s Bay Magpies were equally rampant early on against the Northland Taniwha whose Ranfurly Shield challenge was snuffed out early. The Magpies led 27-3 at halftime.

The second round of the 2015 ITM Cup starts on Thursday night, when the Lions travel to play North Harbour – the only team they beat last year.

Defending champions Tasman host the BoP Steamers, while in two big matches next Sunday, Auckland host Taranaki and Canterbury welcome Counties Manukau.

The Women’s NPC and the Heartland Championships both also start this coming weekend.