Waikato Women have booked themselves a spot in the Farah Palmer Cup semi finals with a week to spare in the regular round robin, after pointing a bonus point 31-8 win over Manawatu Cyclones at FMG Stadium Waikato in the Farah Palmer Cup.

The Cyclones dominated the open part of the match and scored the first points with a successful penalty shot at goal by Corrineke Windle as the visitors lead 3-0 after 17 minutes.

Waikato drew it all up 3 all 5 minutes later, when Chelsea Alley converted a penalty right out in front of the posts for the home teams penalty.

Just before halftime, Karli Faneva finished off some great attacking phases from the Waikato to score the first try of the match. Alley added the extras and Waikato took a 10-3 lead into the break.

In the second half it took 17 minutes for the next lot of points to be scored when Chelsea Alley smashed through the Manawatu defence to score Waikato’s second try of the match. Alley converted her own try and Waikato lead 17-3.

In the final 10 minutes Waikato score two more tries to their score. The first coming from Calista Wihone who scored the third try for the home team. Alley converted the try and Waikato led by 21 points.

Manawatu scored their first five pointer with only minutes left as Nicola Chase scored for the visitors.

But the celebrations were shortly lived as Lonita Ngalu-Lavenmai scored the bonus point try after the full time hooter. Alley continued to have a great day with the boot as she converted the try to keep her 100% success rate on the day intact as the Waikato Women recorded a 31-8 win over Manawatu Cyclones to book a spot in the Farah Palmer Cup playoffs.

Waikato 31 (Karli Faneva, Chelsea Alley, Calista Wihone, Lonita Ngalu-Lavemai tries; Chelsea Alley 4 conversions, 1 penalty)

Manawatu 8 (Nicola Chase try; Corrineke Windle 1 penalty)

Halftime l Waikato 10-3 Manawatu

Article added: Monday 01 October 2018