Reward at last for Manawatu

A delighted Hadleigh Parkes sensed there was a big performance due from Manawatu as they headed into their ITM Cup clash with Wellington – and the Turbos didn't disappoint with a 36-24 victory over their Hurricanes cousins on Saturday.

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Since the 77-8 hammering by Northland a couple of weeks ago, Parkes said the team had been working tirelessly and was thrilled the hard work had paid off with their first win of the season and first first-class victory over Wellington since 1989.

"We've been training really well and it was just a matter of time before we got a win on the board," the Turbos centre said.

"We had to improve a lot since the Northland game. We went back to the drawing board and it's awesome to get the win. There's a great feeling in the camp."

Parkes was one of four try scorers for the Turbos. Shannon Paku dotted down against his former provincial team-mates to get the home side off to a flyer and they never took a step backwards from there.

They led 14-12 at half-time as Isaac Thompson kept the scoreboard ticking over with a couple of penalties as Wellington responded with tries for Tajhon Mailata and Alipati Leiua.

Parke's solo effort and another five-pointer from Fraser Stone midway through the second half saw Manawatu stretch the lead to 26-12 before Julian Savea's converted try got Wellington back in the hunt with 15 minutes to go.

But another penalty from Thompson looked to have sealed the win until a dramatic final few minutes saw Mailata grab his second before Turbos substitute Asaeli Tikoirotuma's intercept try and Craig Clare's conversion sparked celebrations amongst the bucket-wearing Manawatu faithful.

"We've [scored early tries] in the last few weeks but unfortunately we couldn't keep it up. It's good this week we've converted our opportunities and we kept on scoring points at crucial stages during the game."

Parkes also said his team-mates had expected Wellington to finish strongly.

"They showed that against Northland when they came back in the last 20 minutes and we just had to really shut them out," he said. "I think that was when everyone stepped up on defence and everyone was there to make those tackles.

"To get the final try was the icing on the cake as well. It was superb."

Wellington coach Andre Bell was understandably disappointed by his side's error-strewn performance and their ill discipline, which resulted in a 10-minute spell on the sidelines for openside flanker Scott Fuglistaller for repeated team infringements at the breakdown.

"We're not happy with our performance. We got out-played and out-muscled and deserved to lose," Bell said.

"We've mentioned it all week [about attitude] and I said to the guys that [Manawatu] had nothing to lose and we had everything to lose.

"They denied us the ball. They were physical at the breakdown, they looked after the ball and we couldn't get the ball. We got frustrated and didn't react to the referee very well and got penalised.

"That led to frustration and a couple of guys chipping the referee and we got marched 10 metres and a sin-binning.

"We talked about it at half-time and said we had to play our game, get it down there and look after the ball. But we didn't do that."

The Lions spent a good amount of time locked in their dressing room after the match, no doubt getting the hard work from Bell and his assistant Richard Watt.

"We've just got to move on. This is going to be a big challenge for us to see how tight we really are," Bell said.

"They've got to certainly look at their own performances. We missed a lot of one-one tackles and that cost us."