Match reports of Aupiki preseason matches you didn't get to see
And a Matatū preview with Martha Mataele
Martha Mataele - Matatū winger and Black Fern #255… If you’re wondering what I said to make her laugh here, just before I hit record I said “SO WHAT DO YOU REALLY THINK IS GOING ON AT NZR???”
I had the pleasure of recording this quick chat with the magnificent Martha Mataele on Wednesday. The first of the series I was planning to get in for you ahead of Aupiki season kick off on Saturday 2 March. And then on Thursday I started feeling off. I took a Covid test and the positive line lit up so quick I had to check the box to make sure I was looking at the right one.
This meant I have now spent the last three days in bed. If only I had the Aupiki pre-season matches to entertain me but alas, greater wisdom than mine had determined not to screen it. With the matches being played in Hamilton and Christchurch while I was laid up in my sickbed here in Wellington, it appeared I would be stuck waiting for the graphic on the timeline to give us the scoreline without the story.
But then I remembered the part I love most about our game - the other women that love it. So put the call out to folks I thought may have headed along to the matches. Jenny Sheehan was the first to step up. Sick herself, she helped orchestrate a relay of updates to help bring us this match report from preseason match number 1 - Chiefs Manawa vs Blue.
MANAWA V BLUES
A disclaimer on both these write ups that pre-season are experimental spaces. Here you want to test combos and have a luxury of an ever expanding bench to play as if fatigue isn’t a factor. This may have been part of the reasoning why they weren’t televised but I think us fans can hold this understanding in our head and also enjoy the spectacle for what it is.
And what a show it was in Hamilton.
The teams traded blows in the first half. Manawa opened with Mererangi Paul then Blues eventually worked Petu Maliepo over the try line. Aupiki’s top try scorer from the 2023 season, Luka Connor, joined the party doing her best Emily Tuttosi impression to score off the back of a lineout drive. Paul then nabbed a beautiful intercept and another five points.
Manawa 19-5 up after the opening 33 minutes before the Blues finally found their rhythm. Dajian Brown scores then the Manawa lose one to the bin after a high shot on Ruahei Demant. Young gun Angelica Mekemeke Vahai scores to close the gap to 19-17 at the break.
A quick note here on Mekemeke Vahai. The Blues are spoilt for choice in their backline with capped Black Ferns Patricia Maliepo, Katelyn Vaha'akolo, Sylvia Brunt, Ruahei Demant and Krysten Cottrell. Jaymie Kolose, the breakout star of 2023’s season has spent the last year involved in the Black Ferns 7s set up. Sevens star, Niall Williams Guthrie, couldn’t find a spot amongst them and as I predicted, was named flanker for the match. I say all this to really just say, keep your eyes on Mekemeke Vahai. She’s still so young but shhhhheeeesh she is going places. Hop on her bandwagon now!
Anyway, the second half kicks off and so do the Manawa. Ruby Tui is welcomed back to the scoresheet then Waikato winger, Merania Paraone joins her. Tanya Kalounivale gets one for the forwards before Matatū convert, Grace Steinmetz, scores for her new team. Suddenly, it’s looking grim for the Blues.
Steinmetz hits the gas
Adding to this onslaught, reportedly Williams Guthrie and Liana Mikaele-Tu’u are both taken off and get changed. I checked in with Niall after the match and she said it was just a niggle. So hopefully this doesn’t sideline them for long.
Back on the pitch, Elizabeth Moimoi makes the scoreline slightly less painful for the Blues. Final say goes to Ruby Tui though and the game finishes 50-24 to the Manawa.
Now look, I have been gassing up this Blues side as a contender in this season and I’m not going to write them off on just this performance. Things unseen in the live scoring is the set piece. Aldora Itunu, returning to the competition after welcoming her bub last year, had the number of Aupiki franchise hopper, Krystal Murray, at scrum time.
They are team built off a foundation of Auckland Storm players. What do we know about the Auckland Storm? They are weakest at the beginning of the season and build as things go on.
Manawa meanwhile, have solved the problem that kept them from victory last season. With Renee Holmes joining the side, they now have a more confident place kicker. It’s hard to point to a place of weakness in a starting team that is nearly all Black Ferns. Manawa are still a benchmark team everyone else will be grading themselves against.
MATATUU V HURRICANES POUA
(Substack won’t let me put a macron on a capital heading - how silly! So given they indicate an elongated sound I have doubled up the U here).
This time, the lovely Hayley Hutana was sideline to provide the intel on game day. Supplemented afterward by commentary from the matches ref, Maggie Cogger-Orr. Hutana has ran out for the Blues in previous seasons but is currently rehabbing an ACL. So we were lucky to have her down there supporting her partner, Taneika Uerata, who was an assistant referee for the match. So we have to say “thanks ref” and really mean it cause without them, I wouldn’t have much to help me report on this game.
The reigning Aupiki champions, Matatū, have never beaten the Hurricanes Poua. In the opening season, COVID cancelled their preseason before the Poua asserted themselves confidently in the final round. Last year, Poua drubbed them in the pre-season and then snuck home by just one point in the round robin. So with the pre-season in Matatū country this year, the Southerners were determined to get this monkey off their back.
Poua had other plans racing out to a 17-0 lead. This was sparked by the absolutely fire midfield combination of Monica Tagoai and Shakira Baker. Hooray yes, more of this please. We only got two matches with this combo last year and it was my favourite. Tagoai gets the most out of Baker, helping her pick her moments to cause havoc. Tagoai too is one of my favourite midfield defenders. Just lethal.
Baker scores on the counter
After this early onset, Matatū predictably steadied themselves. Their ability to dig themselves out of holes is this team’s greatest strength. Martha Mataele was instrumental for Matatū. Scoring their first and making the line break that set up their second for Amy du Plessis.
A reshuffle pushed Winnie Palamo to the wing she quickly scored on. Rosie Kelly was making no mistakes off the tee, giving Matatū the lead for the first time just before the break. Poua had the final say of though, Layla Sae finding herself in acres of space after peeling off the scrum. This put them up at oranges, 24-21.
Changes were rung in at the break, Liv McGoverne at 10 and her Chiefs Exeter partner/actual partner, Charlotte Woodman at 11. Cheyenne Cunningham joining them at 12. Poua also have a shuffle, bringing on Kalyn Takitimu-Cook at 15 and Rangimarie Sturmey at 12. Great to have both these young Poua players back in the mix after injury and set backs.
Takitimu-Cook wastes no time telling everyone she is here to play, kicking a 50/22. Layla Sae scores extending the Poua lead to 31-21. Which means it’s time for another rally from Matatū. Who better to set that off than you guessed it, Martha Mataele. She breaks the line to get Woodman over in the corner. Holly Wratt-Groeneweg adds another and they take the lead 33-31 with only five minutes to go.
I am STRESSED. Just sitting in my messages with Hayley, desperately waiting to see the typing bubble pop up. Four minutes pass and then I get the message. The Poua have a penalty, 15 metres out from the sideline. Hayley puts it best when she says “If they get it, it might be the Hurricanes day today.”
NO MISTAKE! My new favourite, Takitimu-Cook, slots it over giving the Poua back the lead 34-33. Turns out Maggie Cogger-Orr reckons there’s more time to play but my reporter Hayley doesn’t know how much. So I just pace around the room. The longest three minutes of my life later, the message comes through. The Poua have done it! Their clean sheet against the Matatū remains intact.
Adding to this play by play, referee Maggie reckons a few details are worth highlighting. Number one, it’s a really tough ask to convert Marcelle Parkes to prop at this level. Leilani Perese, back from welcoming her first bub, was making her life hard. Maggie reckons Perese and the rest of the Poua pack have come along way from last season and are looking formidable at scrum time.
She also wanted to highlight that Isabel Waterman “played out of her skin”. I have a lot of time for Waterman. She strikes me as someone with the right talent that just so happens to have been in the wrong environment for her. I look forward to seeing her continue to develop this season.
Another Canterbury convert looking at home in yellow is Hannah King. While much of the attention will go to the midfield this season, the young 10 was said to look very comfortable at this level. Great news for the Poua given the loss of the experienced options of Carys Dallinger and Victoria Subritzky Nafatali.
This win comes with a warning from Maggie though. She thinks the fitness of the Poua pack will be limited in our regular season without the use of an extended bench and rolling subs available in pre-season. This is a point well made as it is well established that the conditioning of the Matatū side is what gives them such an edge each season.
FINAL THOUGHTS
This was the match report that community wrote. I feel incredibly fortunate to have rugby savvy and passionate friends around the country who can step in the provide the coverage our competition didn’t.
It shouldn’t be like this though.
We are now in the week of the season kick off and where is the big marketing push? We don’t have long to build interest or retain it with these sprint length seasons. So where is the story telling and the hype? Why am I able to scrap this together on my sickbed while the main Super Rugby NZ account still currently only has the men’s season promo pinned to their timeline?
The performance of the players over the weekend deserved better and so do all the folks in my DMs ready to cheer them on.
With you,
Alice