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The Counties Manukau Heat booked their spot in the Farah Palmer Cup final on Saturday, with a whopping 60-7 victory over the Wellington Pride in their semi-final in Pukekohe. It was a dominating performance from start to finish with the Heat taking a 36-0 lead into the half time break. New Zealand Women’s Sevens star Portia Woodman was electric for the Heat. The winger scoring four of their 10 tries in the match.

Te Kura Ngata-Aerengamate, Aotearoa Matau, Renee Wickliffe and Hazel Tubic all scored one try each, while Sharnita Woodman bagged a double. Victoria Subritzky-Nafatali kicked a conversion, with Hazel Tubic kicking four conversions.

The Heat will take on eight-time defending champions Auckland in the Farah Palmer Cup final. The Heat made history just a few weeks back when they defeated the Storm 7-3 to hand Auckland their first defeat since 2013. The final takes place at ECOLight Stadium on Sunday 2 October, kick off 2:30pm. The match will be played live on Sky Sport 3. Entry to ECOLight Stadium is free for the match and there will be a curtain raiser between Under 18 Girls Counties Manukau v Auckland West at 12:05pm.

Counties Manukau B’s Red had a great 41-16 win over Auckland in their match over the weekend. In wet and windy conditions at Colin Maiden Park, CM Red got themselves on the board first through a Joe Reynolds penalty. They were playing into the wind in the first spell and Auckland struck back with a penalty of their own to make it 3-3. The first try of the match was scored by John Luteru and it was converted by Reynolds. Auckland closed the gap again with another penalty, but it wasn’t long until Sione Anga’aelangi scored CM Red’s second try after some good work through the forwards. Auckland scored their first try, but another Reynolds penalty closed out the first half to give CM Red a 20-13 half time lead.

A number of penalty were kicked in the second half, with Reynolds slotting three to Auckland’s one to make the score 29-16. CM Red had taken control of the game from this point and with 10 minutes left to play, Harry Fitzsimons scored after chasing a kick through to dot down in the left hand corner. Right on full time Jonah Refiti scored to seal the deal and hand CM Red a 41-16 victory.

Counties Manukau B’s Black had a narrow 10-5 loss against Auckland Colts in their wet and wild fixture at Karaka on Saturday. CM Black battled the wind, rain and staunch defence from Auckland. The visitors scored the first points of the game with a penalty kick, before Desma Liaina scored for the hosts to give them a 5-3 lead at half time. CM Black camped Auckland in their own half for the first 20 minutes of the second spell, with players held up over the try line, a knock on over the try line and a penalty kick that hit the post. Auckland survived the pressure and managed to score an impressive try from 60m out to hit the lead 10-5. No more points were scored in the match and now CM Black need a bonus point win against Auckland B’s at Colin Maiden Park to have any chance of contending for a spot in the B-Grade final.

Representative Results, Wednesday, 21 September:

U19 CM 35 (Viliami Taulani 2, Salimoni Tukania 2 tries; Orbyn Leger 3 con and 3 pen)

BOP 20

Representative Results, Friday, 23 September:

Mitre 10 Cup

Steelers 35 (Kalolo Tuiloma 3,Gafatasi Su’a, Sione Fifita tries; Piers Francis 2 con and 2 pen)

Waikato 26

HT: 22-5

Under 18 – City 33 Country 12

Representative Results, Saturday, 24 September:

Farah Palmer Cup – Semi Final

Counties Manukau Heat 60 (Te Kura Ngata-Aerengamate, Aotearoa Matau, Sharnita Woodman 2, Portia Woodman 4, Renee Wickliffe, Hazel Tubic tries; Victoria Subritzky-Nafatali con, Hazel Tubic 4 con)

Wellington 7

HT: 36-0

Men’s B – CM Black 5 (Desma Liaina try)

Auckland Colts 10

HT: 5-3

Men’s B – CM Red 41 (Sione Anga’aelangi, John Luteru, Deniro Refiti, Harry Fitzsimons tries; Joe Reynolds 3 con and 5 pen)

Auckland 16

HT: 20-13

Under 18 Girls – Final

CM 5 (Jurina Auva’a try)

Auckland East 20

HT: 0-10

Under 16 – CM v Thames Valley (Defaulted)

Roller Mills

CM 15 (Adrian McCord 2, Ryan Michie tries)

Waikato 5

Final Rankings:

Under 19 – Chiefs Pool – Ranked 3^rd

Under 19 – Michael Jones winners

Under 19 Jock Hobbs – Ranked 9^th

Top Try Scorer of the tournament - Salimoni Tukania (Counties Manukau) 5

Under 85kg – Ranked 2^nd

Under 18 Girls – Ranked 2^nd

Under 16 – Ranked 2^nd

Representative Fixtures – Roller Mills

Monday, 26 September, CM v BOP, 12:45pm, Yarrow Stadium 4

Tuesday, 27 September, CM v Northland, 10:00am, Yarrow Stadium 2

Wednesday, 28 September, CM v Thames Valley, 11:45am, Yarrow Stadium 4

Thursday, 29 September, CM BYE

Friday, 30 September, Semi Finals

Saturday, 1 October, Finals

Representative Fixtures, Thursday, 29 September:

Mitre 10 Cup – Steelers v Tasman, 7:35pm, Lansdowne Park, Blenheim

Representative Fixtures, Saturday, 1 October:

Men’s B – CM Black v Auckland, 1:00pm, Colin Maiden Park 10, Auckland

Men’s B – CM Red BYE

Representative Fixtures, Sunday, 2 October:

Farah Palmer Cup – FINAL

Counties Manukau Heat v Auckland Storm, 2:30pm, ECOLight Stadium, Pukekohe

Representative Fixtures, Saturday, 8 October:

Mitre 10 Cup – Steelers v Otago, 5:35pm, Forsyth Bar Stadium, Dunedin

Men’s B – Finals

Representative Fixtures, Saturday, 15 October:

Mitre 10 Cup – Steelers v Canterbury, 2:35pm, ECOLight Stadium, Pukekohe

Friday, 21 October, Mitre 10 Cup Semi Finals

Sunday, 30 October, Mitre 10 Cup Finals

Alternatively, please visit www.steelers.co.nz or http://draws.nzrugby.co.nz (Northern Region) for standings and full draw and results.

Richard Spranger - Photo Credit