Canterbury have beaten Taranaki 38-28 in Christchurch to reach their second straight NPC final, and the decider against Northland will be played on Labour Day Monday, the first time the provincial championship has been settled on a weekday.
The defending champions led 26-7 at half-time at One New Zealand Stadium on Sunday afternoon after scoring four unanswered tries in the first half, then survived a Taranaki fightback that cut the margin to seven points with 12 minutes to play. RNZ’s match report records that flanker Corey Kellow opened the scoring in the 15th minute, while Taranaki lock Fiti Sa was in the sin bin for his side’s repeated infringements. Former All Black centre Seta Tamanivalu levelled the scores for the visitors in the 21st minute, but Canterbury then ran in tries to winger Kurtis MacDonald, blindside flanker Xavier Treacy and lock Sam Darry before the break.
Second five-eighth Jone Rova scored three minutes after the restart to stretch the lead to 31-7, and at that point the semi-final looked over. Taranaki had other ideas. Centre Meihana Grindlay scored a long-range try in the 53rd minute and loose forward Kaylum Boshier crashed over three minutes later. Winger Isaac Hutchinson, who also kicked four conversions, restored a two-score cushion in the 61st minute before Grindlay scored his second with 12 minutes left. Taranaki could not find another try, and Stuff’s match report described a frantic finish in which Canterbury simply held on.
Canterbury captain Brodie McAlister told Sky Sport his side had expected the second-half surge, the New Zealand Herald reported. “Going into halftime, we knew that Taranaki have been a dangerous team all season, so we knew that they were going to throw the kitchen sink at it in the second half and we had to be right on, and they did that,” he said. “Once again we probably went to a lull bit in that after halftime, but yeah, pretty proud of the effort from the lads.” He also paid tribute to the beaten side. “This Taranaki team threw it all at us, so we’re going to recover over the next couple of days and look forward to a good challenge ahead against Northland,” McAlister said.
Both teams had a late reinforcement from the All Blacks. Taranaki first five-eighth Josh Jacomb and Canterbury lock Jamie Hannah were in the 34-man squad that travelled to Sydney for Saturday night’s Bledisloe Cup test but missed selection for the match, and RugbyPass reported that the All Blacks confirmed on Sunday morning the pair had flown home straight after the warm-up at Accor Stadium. Jacomb went straight into the number 10 jersey for Taranaki and kicked four conversions. Hannah started on the bench for Canterbury, with Darry and Tahlor Cahill named in the second row.
The result reverses the regular season meeting between the two provinces. Taranaki beat Canterbury 40-26 in New Plymouth in round five in late August, one week after Northland had gone to Christchurch and taken the Ranfurly Shield off Canterbury with a 36-12 win. Those two defeats in consecutive weeks were Canterbury’s only losses of the season. They won their last five round-robin games to finish top of the table with eight wins from ten, then beat Waikato 62-26 in their quarter-final on 11 October with McAlister scoring a first-half hat-trick from hooker.
Taranaki finished fifth with six wins and reached the semi-final by beating North Harbour 50-31 in Albany on 10 October. Head coach Jarrad Hoeata told Sport Nation on 12 October that his squad had been hit hard by injuries and All Blacks call-ups, including Scott and Beauden Barrett, and that the leadership group had carried the team through the lean weeks. “So we just stayed in the fight and that’s why I was so proud of the crew,” he said. He was realistic about the trip south. “We’ve beaten them this year, but I’m under no illusion how tough it will be down in Christchurch.” Taranaki won the title in 2014 and 2023, and knocked Canterbury out at the semi-final stage on the way to that second championship.
Canterbury assistant coach Kieran Coll had acknowledged the growing edge between the two unions before the match. “I think there’s been a pretty good rivalry building between these two unions for a while,” he told Sport Nation on 15 October. “Last time we played Taranaki, they gave us a good lesson.”
The final will be played in Christchurch on Monday 26 October, with the Herald reporting a 1.30pm kick-off. The Monday date is a consequence of the Rugby League World Cup. One New Zealand Stadium hosts a double-header on Sunday 25 October, with the Kiwi Ferns playing France and the Kiwis playing the Cook Islands, so the provincial final has moved to the public holiday. The Post reported that it will be the NPC’s first weekday final.
Northland earned their place by beating Otago 38-19 in WhangΔrei on Friday night, their first final in the competition’s 50-year history. Had Taranaki won on Sunday, Northland would have hosted the decider at Semenoff Stadium as the higher seed. Instead the Taniwha return to the ground where they won the Shield in August, this time against a Canterbury side that has not lost since.
Canterbury are the most successful province in the championship’s history. They won five titles between 1977 and 2004 and have added ten more since the competition was restructured in 2006, including six in a row from 2008 to 2013. Their most recent title came in Christchurch on 25 October 2025, when they came from behind to beat Otago 36-28 and end an eight-year drought. Northland have never won the title under either their current name or their former name of North Auckland, so Labour Day will deliver either a 16th Canterbury championship or a first for the north.
Were you at the stadium on Sunday, or will you be there on Labour Day? Tell us who you think lifts the trophy in the comments below.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job π
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