Richie Mo'unga has scored the winning try for Canterbury in his first NPC match since 2020, with the defending champions beating Auckland 38-31.
Mo'unga, who has spent the last three years playing in Japan, came on as a replacement in the second half last night, and while he had a few awkward moments, he turned on the class to split the Auckland defence in the 78th minute, when the scores were deadlocked.
TVNZ will broadcast all NPC matches live and free on TVNZ+, with three games broadcast on TVNZ 1 – a flagship Saturday primetime match at 7pm, alongside Saturdays and Sundays at 2pm.
The first half was helter-skelter, with Canterbury starting off where they left off last season, with early dominance at the breakdown seeing them score two tries in the first 11 minutes.
But Auckland stormed back when the red-and-blacks made a couple of errors, leaving a hole in their lineout for Sam Hainsworth-Fa'aofo to score and then gifting an intercept to Xavier Tito-Harris.
Canterbury then scored two more tries, but Auckland claimed one back to trail 26-21 at halftime.
There was a big cheer when Mo'unga took the field but he looked a bit rusty early, knocking forward a ball that bounced just in front of him and then missing a conversion he normally would have nailed.
Auckland had taken the lead for the first time in the 60th minute, but Canterbury hit back seven minutes later.
It was 31-all with 12 minutes to go and stayed that way, until Canterbury's forwards charged towards the Auckland line from a lineout after winning a penalty and Mo'unga got his hands on the ball playing halfback, fooling the defence with a dummy and scoring by the posts. He then converted it.
In earlier games today, Otago beat Southland 41-14, and Taranaki beat Counties Manukau 20 points to five.
On Friday night, Tasman pipped North Harbour 31-29 in Nelson, while Waikato opened the season with a 38-26 win over Bay of Plenty on Thursday.
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