Record breaking win for Lions against Auckland in NPC Semi-final

In their 181^st first-class meeting, the Wellington Lions beat Auckland with their highest score against them in Friday night’s National Provincial Championship semi-final at Wellington Stadium.

Wellington defeated Auckland 54-19, to earn their place in next week’s 2022 NPC final, against either Canterbury or Bay of Plenty who meet on Saturday in the other semi-final. Should BoP tip over Canterbury that final will be at home.

In scoring 54 points, it surpasses the 48 (48-23) they scored in this equivalent knockout match in 2000. Wellington went on to beat Canterbury in that final – the last of their four top flight NPC title wins since their first in 1978.

The Lions were in sizzling form from the outset, racing in to score their first two tries to lead 12-0 early, right wing Julian Savea and second five Riley Higgins the scorers.

The second of these tries brought up their 1,000^th point against Auckland in all NPC matches since the competition’s inception in 1976.

Hooker Asafo Aumua scored next, and first five Jackson Garden-Bachop converted to make it 19-0 after 27 minutes.

Garden-Bachop then sliced through to score a well-taken solo try and added the conversion to put them up 26-0 with five minutes to play before halftime.

In scoring this try, Garden-Bachop also surpassed Jon Preston(682 points) as Wellington’s fourth highest points scorer in first-class rugby

Auckland scored a runaway try to openside flanker Niko Jones on halftime, to trail 26-7 at the turnaround.

There were further flickers for Auckland immediately after halftime when No. 8 Jackson Pugh crossed in the 42nd minute to make it 26-14.

But the Lions swept back on to hard attack and soon extinguished such hopes, with tries to halfback TJ Perenara and left wing Pepesana Patafilo, to lead 40-14 heading into the fourth quarter.

Once more, Auckland replied when they had to, lock Patrick Tuipulotu’s try cutting the deficit to 40-19.

From that point it was the Lions. Higgins scored his brace and the match-clincher, followed by fullback Love racing in on fulltime to raise the half century of points for the home side.

This was Wellington’s ninth straight win in this year’s NPC competition and their seventh straight at Wellington Stadium.

Wellington also retained the Fred Lucas Cup, in their first match against Auckland in just over two years. This was their third consecutive win over them as well.