Taranaki regained the Ranfurly Shield with a gritty 15-12 victory over Southland in their national provincial championship rugby match in Invercargill last night.
Taranaki last held the shield 15 years ago, but dug deep to cut short Southland's tenure to just one month in a dour, tryless match.
Coming off Saturday's 27-0 loss to Canterbury, Taranaki needed a strong start, as did Southland, whose last outing was a 30-35 loss to Wellington.
However, neither team impressed in a stop-start first half and although Southland dominated territorially, they were unable to convert that into points on the board.
Both teams worked their kicking game hard, not always to the best effect, and the match turned into something of an arm wrestle with both teams struggling to keep their games error-free.
A brace of penalties apiece saw the scores tied 6-6 after half an hour, Southland No 10 James Wilson trading blows with Taranaki counterpart Beauden Barrett.
And while Taranaki looked dangerous on the counterattack -- they were boosted by the returning trio of halfback Tyson Keats, No 10 Beauden Barrett and fullback Andre Taylor from injury -- they couldn't string together enough phases to really threaten Southland.
Yet another penalty in the 39th minute was enough to give Taranaki a shaky 9-6 lead at the break.
The second half was more of the same, although Jackson Ormand did well to break through the Southland defence at the restart, and Taranaki looked to be running with more purpose.
Handling errors still let them down, and a try went begging after No 8 Ben Souness knocked on after a good dab five metres out from Keats, then loosehead prop Michael Bent lost the ball forward from similar range as Taranaki threatened again.
Southland struggled with their set piece, while Taranaki's troubles at line-out time continued.
It took Southland nearly 55 minutes to finally display signs of life and - sparked by a scintillating run fom wing Kade Poki - they roared into life.
Although the Taranaki defence held firm, the home team finally started to find some continuity, managing to string together more phases.
But the mistakes kept coming, Taranaki let off the hook as Southland turned the ball over at crucial times and with less than 20 minutes to go, Southland came away with only another Wilson penalty for their efforts.
Barrett replied in kind, and with 15 minutes remaining Taranaki led 15-9.
Southland halfback Scott Cowan almost stole the game when he charged down a tired Keats clearing kick, but he was bundled into touch by the desperately chasing Barrett and Ormand five metres short.
Another Wilson penalty saw Southland close to within three, but Taranaki showed good discipline to close out the final minutes for the win.
