Rugby: New Taranaki winger breaks try scoring record

Photo by: John Velvin

New Taranaki wing Taniela Rakuro dedicated his record-breaking performance in the final pre-season Ranfurly Shield match to his village in Fiji.

The 25-year-old from the province of Nadroga-Navosa scored a record five tries on debut as Taranaki annihilated Meads Cup champions Thames Valley 97-0 at the Manaia Domain.

The result would not have surprised the 3000 spectators who lined the sidelines as Thames Valley featured only five players from last year’s final and named 12 debutants. Taranaki also had many of their top-flight players back for the match. 

Rakuro, who has played 23 Super Rugby matches for the Fijian Drua, matched the record for most tries in a match for Taranaki, a feat previously achieved by Mark Robinson against Southland in 1997. George Loveridge (1913) and David Vesty (1971) also achieved the milestone. 

The result also equalled the biggest winning margin in a first-class match last set when Taranaki beat East Coast by the same score in 1983. But it wasn’t their highest score, that came in a 104-12 victory over Nelson Bays in 1995.

Rakuro dedicated his tries to his uncle, who passed away a day before the game and his sister-in-law who died last week.

“I want to dedicate the tries back to my village.”

While he was not sure if any records were broken after the match, Rakuro said he was “very happy” with his performance.

“Thanks to the boys for backing me up,” the man of few words said.  

Asked what he put his try-scoring ability down to, Rakuro said he credited the team for putting him into space as it appeared he went around the Thames Valley defence with ease.  

“They gave me a chance to score a try. I back myself with what I can do.”

Rakuro was signed by Taranaki in June to replace the injured Kini Naholo.

At the time, Taranaki coach Neil Barnes said he wanted to find someone who brought a similar impact as Naholo.

“Taniela’s a class finisher with all the traits we value in a Taranaki player. He’s physical, hard working and team first,” he said.

“We believe he can ignite our backline and help execute the game plan we’ve built.”

Barnes may have got what he wanted as Rakuro used his speed down his wing to score four of his five tries. The other one came from a Thames Valley mistake and all he needed to do was pick up the ball and run a meter to score.  

Taranaki dominated across the park and scored 15 tries in the onslaught.

Their handling was impressive as Taranaki moved the ball down the fielding and made more than 100 offloads to keep the ball alive.

Loose forward Michael Loft, who scored twice in the first half, was one of Taranaki’s stand-out players as his aerial game and support play was evident.

Vereniki Tikoisolomone and Logan Crowley also scored two tries, while Josh Jacomb and Brayton Northcott Hill slotted five conversions each.

There were some promising signs for Thames Valley as first-five Logan Allan kicked well in general play and found touch multiple times in his debut performance.

Taranaki will play Wellington in their final pre-season match away next weekend before their first in-competition Ranfurly Shield challenge against Northland on Saturday, August 2.