Collins brought up his 50th game for Otago in its nail-biting 20-19 win over Hawke’s Bay and with it a place in this Friday night’s Mitre 10 Cup championship final against Waikato in Hamilton.
The experienced fullback was, as usual, a key contributor for Otago and pulled out a clutch play in the dying minutes.
Collins (25) was part of an Otago team which hung tough against a Hawke’s Bay side which was super aggressive in defence and at the breakdown and led for the whole game.
When Hawke’s Bay winger Mason Emerson scored in the corner with under 20 minutes to go to give his side a 19-10 lead, Collins said there was no panic in the ranks.
"We are an interesting team in that we know we can attack and score points — we’ve always had that belief. So we just had to keep to our structures and the points would come," he said.
"I think our defence really stood up in that second half. They were trapped in their 10m a lot. We knew once we got down there we could get penalties and that.
"Our lineout — it stood up the most when it really mattered."
Collins said the side just had to stick to what it had done all season.
"There is no point in panicking in those situations, going and changing things and doing things differently. That is the way we have trained all season.
"At the end there no-one deserves to kick a goal like that more than Josh [Ioane]. He is the hardest working guy I know when it comes to his kicking."
Collins said getting to 50 games for Otago was not something he had thought about during the game and it had been a busy time of late.
"I have not had too much time to think about it in the past week, with the [Ranfurly] shield and then the quick transition to the semi. But I’m proud, especially growing up in this province.
"I would have been happy to play one, let alone 50 and then to lead the boys. It is pretty special. What we have done over the past couple of weeks is great, too."
Collins was full of running in the first half but Otago was not accurate enough and Hawke’s Bay was up 14-0 inside 13 minutes.
A lone penalty from Ioane was all Otago had to show for its efforts in the first half as it lost composure when near the tryline.
The game was messy throughout with a lack of continuity from both sides and defence dominated.
Otago finally found the tryline on the 50 minute mark when Mitchell Scott went over after Otago swung the ball side to side.
Sio Tomkinson ran on to the ball on a nice angle to get the side back to 19-17 with eight minutes left before Ioane’s heroics at the end.
Mitre 10 Cup
Championship semifinal
Otago 20
Mitchell Scott, Sio Tomkinson tries; Josh Ioane 2 con, 2 pen
Hawke’s Bay 19
Marino Mikaele-Tu’u. Mason Emerson, Brad Weber tries; JJ Taulagi 2 con
Halftime: 14-3 Hawke’s Bay
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