Matatū too strong for the Poua

Christchurch put on a show for Matatū’s first home game of the Super Rugby Aupiki Season.  

The sun was shining, and excitement was building at Apollo Projects Stadium for an afternoon of Sunday double-header action. 

Matatū donned their purple strips in honour of International Women’s Day, and their families and friends lined the tunnel for a Guard of Honour to send them onto the field.  

Matatū set the scene within the first five minutes of the match with some flawless execution. Amy du Plessis put Winnie Palamo into space with pinpoint accuracy, who offloaded to Grace Brooker to send her powering over the line.  

The home team quickly backed up their first try with a brilliant inside offload to Kaea Nepia who had a 45-meter untouched dash to the try line. 

The momentum kept building for Matatū in the 20th minute. A scrum 20 meters out gave Maia Joseph the perfect opportunity to swing the ball right to Winnie Palamo to seal the 5 points. A conversion from Hannah King brought the score to 17-0. 

After more dominant possession, Kaea Nepia busts her way through from her second try of the game. Another successful conversion from Hannah King gives her side a 24-0 lead. 

Hurricanes Poua hit back in the 33rd minute – Winger Ayesha Leti-I'iga finds herself some space and beats several defenders to put her team on the board before halfitme. A successful conversion from Cassie Siataga makes the halftime score 24-7. 

After almost 30 minutes of scoreless action in the second half, Matatū showed their set piece class. Winnie Palamo had a brilliant run and offload to Lucy Jenkins to set her up to cross the line to extend their lead to 22 points and make the final score 29-7. 

Matatū will now focus on a highly anticipated match against the defending champions, Blues Women, in Nelson next week.