Mako women off the mark

The Tasman Mako women's side notched the first win of their 2026 Farah Palmer Cup championship campaign at Albany today, beating North Harbour 29-19.

After making seven changes to their run-on side after the previous week's loss to Otago, Tasman got the mixture right this week to claim their first win since round three in 2025.

The Mako forged a 19-12 lead at halftime, playing with a strong breeze at their backs, but when the home side levelled the scores with a try and conversion soon after the break the visitors had a mountain to climb.

However they stuck to their game plan, retaining the ball through multiple phases, eventually scoring two more clinical tries, to Sophie Pemberton after a drive close to the line, and impressive winger Kim Lammers, who bagged her second of the match with a typical decisive finish, the Mako defending stoutly in the final minutes to claim a hard-fought and much-celebrated victory.

The Mako are out of semifinal contention but will be buoyed by today's result when they take on Wellington Pride in their final match at Hnry Stadium next week.  

Mako skipper Stephani Mitchell, who along with Lammers, Hall, halfback Taylah Richards and loosie Leah Miles had outstanding games, said, "I am so proud of our team, we just played really well. We talked about having confidence and we certainly played with that today.

"We have also been talking about how we are good rugby players and that we can play good rugby - and I think we showed that on the park today."

Scores: Tasman 29 (Kim Lammers 2, Lucy Hall, Ashleigh Wood, Sophie Pemberton tries, Hall 2 con) North Harbour 19. HT 19-12 Tasman.