News

The Counties Power Heat have been beaten late for the second week running as the Auckland Storm chased them down to win their Farah Palmer Cup match 13-10 at Navigation Homes Stadium on Friday night.

The Heat led for 70 minutes of the match and will be heartened by the way they matched it with one of the competition favourites but will rue some missed tackles that led to the winning try with 10 minutes to play.

Auckland opened the scoring with an early penalty, but the home side struck back with a try through aggressive lock Harono Te Iringa midway through the first half.

Auckland dominated field position for the majority of the match but the Heat’s defense proved resolute.

Auckland centre Sylvia Brunt brushed off a couple of would-be tacklers and raced 20m to score the match-winner with just under 10 minutes left in the match.

It means the Heat have dropped back-to-back games by the narrowest of margins.

They will face Waikato next weekend in a crucial game.

Counties Power Heat 10: Harono Te Iringa try, Hazel Tubic con, pen
Auckland 13: Sylvia Brunt try, Patricio Maliepo con, Ruahei Demant 2 pens