• Auckland had three players in the sin bin throughout the night
• Superb defence saw them only relinquish 13 points through the match
• Late tries to Harry Plummer and Salesi Rayasi secured the win and bonus-point

Auckland were forced to battle with 14-men for 30 minutes of tonight’s match against Counties Manukau in Pukekohe. The visitor’s however managed to grab two late tries to not only secure the win, but a bonus-point also.

Early play all went the way of the home side and resulted in first blood going to Counties Manukau through the boot of first-five Orbyn Leger.

The early points were then compounded with the sin-binning of Akira Ioane who was deemed to have collapsed a Steelers maul close to the line. Auckland were then given a reprieve with Counties ruled to have made a double movement as they searched for the opening try.

The next half an hour was a grind for both sides. Half-chances, dropped ball and concession of possession plagued both sides for the majority of the opening spell. The feeling was there that if either team was able to hold the ball for a few phases they’d be able to crack the opposition’s defence.

Auckland were the first side to manage it in the 34^th minute through Blake Gibson. Several penalties on the trot saw the blue and whites able to set-up a powerful rolling maul from the lineout. Co-captain Gibson being the beneficiary at the back and able to fall over the line.

Auckland went into the sheds with the slender advantage, but both sides would of known that the game was there for the taking and holding onto the ball and using it effectively would likely see them home come fulltime.

Auckland were out of the gates early in the second spell. Clean lineout ball allowed Auckland to run a neat play from the back and see Caleb Clarke scythe through the Counties midfield to extend the visitor’s lead to eleven.

The home side were next to score with Auckland’s Tumua Manu in the bin at the time for a dangerous tackle. The Steelers were able to navigate their way down field before unleashing a 9-man lineout and subsequent rolling maul to crash over the line and narrow the gap to just six.

With 15 minutes to play Auckland were a man short yet again. This time Jonathan Ruru was the unlucky man caught at the bottom of a maul and was ruled to have been attempting to collapse the Steelers effort. With another man in the bin, Auckland saw Counties pull to within a single point with big lock Sikeli Nabou crashing over for the home side.

The blue and whites weren’t about to give it away however, and with only 14 men on the field it was first-five Harry Plummer who stood up in a big way and was able to scramble over for a try which he was then able to convert to give his side an eight point advantage.

Back to their full complement, Auckland were then able to put the cherry on top with a  bonus-point try at the death to a flying Salesi Rayasi, and also, secure maximum competition points to take into next week against Wellington at home.

Auckland 28 (B Gibson, C Clarke, H Plummer, S Rayasi tries; H Plummer 3, D Kirkpatrick conversions)

Counties Manukau 13 (J Royal, S Nabou tries; O Leger penalty)

Halftime: 7 - 3