Taranaki beat Canterbury 40:26 in the NPC on Friday night, closing out a match where the home side showed far more conviction than the visitors had offered all season. By then, the result said everything about where this fixture stood after five rounds.
Taranaki's recent run had been uneven — a heavy loss to Northland followed by a narrow defeat to Bay of Plenty — but they clearly turned to the kids when they needed to. The win against Canterbury extended their unbeaten run to three games, though to be fair, two of those came against lower-ranked opposition.
Canterbury arrived with mixed form of their own. They had beaten Auckland 38:31 but lost badly to Northland 12:36 on their last outing. The away end never stopped after the first ten minutes, but the visitors simply could not string together enough phases to match Taranaki's intensity.
And here's the thing about rugby at this level — you do not need to dominate the ball to win. Taranaki scored four tries to Canterbury's three, but the difference was in the moments that mattered. They punished them from a corner in the second half and put the game to bed early when it could have gone either way.
The scoreline leaves Taranaki third in the log with nine points from five games, while Canterbury remain fourth on seven points. Neither side has moved far enough from the pack to breathe easy, and cup football has its own rules when it comes to momentum.