Four tries in the closing 10 minutes has seen Auckland record a 51-16 bonus-point victory over Southland in Invercargill tonight.

The match was delicately poised at 23-16 with fifteen minutes to play but Auckland kicked things up a notch with a flurry of points to secure the bonus point.

Returning All Blacks Charlie Faumuina, Patrick Tuipulotu and Ofa Tu'ungafasi made their presence felt, all putting in physical performances while the Ioane brothers also starred for Auckland.

The first half was a battle of the boot, Simon Hickey for Auckland and Lima Sopoaga for Southland both knocking over penalties for the only scoring plays.

Auckland enjoyed good possession and territory, forcing Southland to defend for long periods and to their credit they repelled all early attacking efforts.

Little separated the teams at the break, as they went into the sheds with Auckland leading 9-6.

The second half was a different story all together with Rieko Ioane stealing an intercept in the first minute to race away for the first try of the match.

Southland replied with another Sopoaga penalty, Auckland holding a 16-9 advantage.

Constant infringements saw Southland reduced to 13 men for a spell, with Kieran Moffat and Sopoaga both sent to the sin bin.

Auckland was able to use the mid match in numbers to their advantage, a skip-pass out to Joe Ravouvou, in his first start, saw his first try in the blue and white hoops. 

With players still in the sin bin, Southland launched a spirited attack which resulted in halfback Jimmy Cowan diving through the breakdown and over the try line. 

One way traffic was on the cards for the closing ten minutes of the match.

All Black Patrick Tuipulotu started it with a powerful bust over the line for a five pointer.

From the following kick off Akira Ioane made a phenomenal break, racing more than 50 metres before throwing a neat offload into Pryor Collier to score. 

Not to be outdone by his older brother, Rieko showed his skillset with a 60 metre break, wrong footing the last defender to go over for his second of the night.

Replacement hooker Kurt Eklund closed out the match, pouncing on a loose Southland line out ball and going over for the try.

Accurate kicking from Hickey, and then brother Jono Hickey saw the score out to 51-16.

Auckland return home before traveling to Napier to face Hawke’s Bay on Wednesday.

See post match interviews with coach Nick White, captain Simon Hickey and returning All Black Ofa Tu'ungafasi, click here.

For match highlights, click here.

Auckland 51 (R Ioane 2, J Ravouvou, P Collier, P Tuipulotu, K Eklund tries,  S Hickey 3 pen, 5 con, J Hickey 1 con)
Southland 16