Joseph Tapine came up with one of the great tries from a front-rower in New Zealand’s heartbreaking 25-24 loss to Tonga in Pacific Championships.
With Tonga leading 24-18 with 13 minutes to go, Tapine pounced on a freaky offload from Keano Kini with a heads up grubber before regathering and standing up the last line of defence to score under the posts and square the scores.
Andrew Voss was in disbelief as he called the chaotic and memorable try.
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“Kini fires it out the back, a Hail Mary, Tapine a grubber forward, runs towards the tackle of Katoa he beats him, Joseph Tapine one of the plays of the rugby league season,” Voss said on Fox League.
“He scores under the black dot. In a moment it will be 24-24.”
Cooper Cronk was equally stunned by Tapine’s skills after moments earlier putting on one of the tackles of the match.
“What have we just seen?” Cronk said.
“Joseph Tapine absolutely anhialated Soni Luke a couple of tackles ago and on the last play Shaun Johnson.
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“This is the offload that created the space. New Zealand good interchange of pass down this right hand side. Hiku gets tackled and the pressure forces Shaun Johnson to run the ball.
“He finds his main man in Keano Kini who creates a little bit of space and have a look at Joseph Tapine. Kick on the ground, regathers, one on one with Sione Katoa and disposes of him.
“That is a huge play from one of the big front-rowers to score not only in the corner, but brings it round under the posts.”
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Luke Keary lauded Tapine’s freakish skills, speed and footwork for a big man.
“That’s an unbelievable play there by Joseph Tapine,” Keary said.
“He has come up with an absolute pearler. For a front-rower to keep that on the toe and then he has beat Sione Katoa one on one to put the ball under the sticks.”
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