Auckland reach 16th consecutive final

Auckland’s win means they will be making their 16 consecutive final appearance, having only ever been beaten once in 2006 by Wellington.

The game will be played as a curtain raiser to Saturday's, ITM Cup Championship semifinal between Hawke's Bay and Bay of Plenty at midday at McLean Park in Napier and will be broadcast live on SKY in New Zealand.

Auckland qualified for the final after beating Waikato 38-12 while Wellington secured their spot with a last-minute 29-23 win over the Counties Manukau Heat.

Semi Final Recap

Wellington 29 Counties Manukau 23

This game went right to the wire with Wellinton leaving it to the till the final minutes to rescue their season and secure a win to take them to the final.

Counties were on the back foot from the seventh minute when their midfield pairing of Badin-Lee Munroe-Smith and Shontelle Dudley clashed heads in a tackle. The cuts were significant enough that both were forced off and later needed stitches and their departure was compounded by injuries that forces off experienced fullback Rene Wickcliffe. But they battled hard and with two minutes on the clock they were ahead, 23-17 but winger Ayesha Leti-l'iga scored for Wellington to make it 23-22. Up stepped Lizzie Goulden with a conversion attempt from out wide win the game but the ball sailed to the side of the posts.

Wellington’s chances appeared to be over but a from the final play off the restart they won a penalty. Captain Jackie Patea tapped quickly, found centre Georgia Daals and her 50 metre run took her all the over the try line. Goulden kicked the conversion this time and Wellington were 29-23 victors.

Wellington coach coach James Porter said: "We'd tried all day to get [Georgia] one-on-one with their centre and once we finally did, she showed what she was capable off," Porter.

"There was a lot of thought about how long it'd been since we'd played finals rugby and a lot of the girls were talking about how important the game [against Counties] was to them”

"We'd tried to calm them down and say 'hey, it's just another game of rugby' so hopefully we can take those learnings and look to next week and relax."

Auckland 38 Waikato 12

A dominant victory over Waikato saw the Auckland Storm qualify for their 16 consecutive final appearance.

In a repeat of the 2014 final, the Storm were dominant up front and had too much pace out wide, with leading competition try scorer Mele Hufanga adding another three to her season’s tally.

The Storm came out of the blocks firing, awarded an early scrum penalty inside the Waikao 22 they set up for an old school ‘wall’.

The ball was moved across field and captain Fiao’o Fa’amausili came up with the first points of the match.

A defensive turn over from centre Theresa Fitzpatrick was the starting point of the next scoring movement – as Ruahei Demant linked with Linda Itunu to move the team up field.

Fullback Kiri Demant offloaded to Mele Hufanga who race away for her first try of the match.

Ruahei Demant convered for the 12-0 lead as the Storm were scoring faster than a point a minute.

That trend continued, as on the 15 minute mark Ruahei Demant and Fitzpatrick combined to put Hufanga away for her second try in five minutes.

Trailling 19-0, Waikato finally got their hands on the ball for the mid part of the first half but the dogged Storm defence ensured there was no way through.

Onjeulina Leiataua linked with Fitzpatrcik to put Aleisha Nelson away for a try, and a 26-0 lead at the half time break.The Storm were on the wrong side of the penalty count in the second spell and were forced to defend for long periods.The first ten minutes of the second half saw the Storm camped on their own line, and while they repelled wave after wave of Waikato attack, eventually Stacey Waaka crossed for the visitors.

Hitting back almost immediately, a penalty put the Storm in good attacking position and a line out drive gave them the go forward to see prop Aimee Lenssen burrow over for the points.The Storm lead 31-7 midway through the second spell.

Playing with 14 players for a period late in the half, Lydia Crossman sent to the sin bin after a team warning, the Storm were still able to capitalize and score points.

An impressive scrum, with only seven players, was awarded a penalty and ‘the wall’ came into action again, this time Hufanga the benefactor, running in her third try.Waikato had the last say of the match, scoring a try on the stroke of full time.