• Akira Ioane bagged a brace and made a number of significant plays in this afternoon’s encounter
• Auckland led at the break and did enough to hold-off Wellington in the second spell
• Auckland now face Canterbury in the final next Saturday afternoon at Eden Park (K/O 4.05pm)

Auckland have surged into the 2018 Mitre 10 Cup final on the back of a dominant display from No.8 Akira Ioane and the home side’s ability to blunt Wellington every time they threatened to come back into the match.

It was however, Lions fullback Wes Goosen who was the first over the chalk. The visitors were able to exploit sloppy defence on the short-side with Goosen afforded a simple sprint to the line to finish.

Auckland replied in kind soon after with Akira Ioane breaking at pace from the back of the scrum down the blind. Ioane found Jonathan Ruru in support who in-turn handed off to a flying Melani Nanai to finish.

The blue and whites looked to consolidate soon after and found themselves embedded in enemy territory. They bravely turned down a shot at goal in favour of the scrum and it paid dividends with Fa’atiga Lemalu able to stretch out several phases later to give the home side the lead.

Wellington first-five Jackson Garden-Bachop then stemmed the mini-Auckland tide with a penalty of his own to narrow the gap.

With less than ten minutes to go in the opening stanza, up stepped Akira Ioane to put his stamp on the match. From a standing start, the powerful No.8 was able to bash his way through three Wellington defenders from five metres out to extend the home side’s lead.

A late Harry Plummer penalty put the icing on the first-half cake for Auckland with the blue and white hoops heading into the sheds with a 14-point advantage.

The Lions opened the scoring in the second half just as they had done the first. Teariki Ben-Nicholas snaffling the ball from the back of a defensive Auckland lineout to crash his way over from ten metres out.

Akira Ioane then stood-up yet again when needed with his second try of the afternoon. Getting the ball from just over five metres out, the powerful No.8 blitzed his way through three would-be defenders to restore the home side’s lead.

Marco Fepulea’i was on-hand late in the piece to crash over after yet another break out from the men in blue and white to cap off a wonderful afternoon of running rugby.

It is now only Canterbury in-between Auckland and the Mitre 10 Cup title.

Auckland 38 (M Nanai, F Lemalu, A Ioane 2, M Fepulea’i tries; H Plummer 5 conversions; H Plummer penalty)

Wellington 17 (W Goosen, T Ben-Nicholas tries; J Garden-Bachop 2 conversions; J Garden-Bachop)

(Halftime: 24 – 10)