Defending champions Canterbury will host Waikato in the Premiership section after being Wellington 26-10 on Saturday while Hawke's Bay will travel to Manawatū for the Championship final after a 27-26 win over Northland on Friday..
Canterbury and Manawatū warmed up for their finals with a friendly game in Palmerston North with Canterbury, down 7-25 at halftime putting in a strong second 40 minutes to win 31-25.
Premiership semifinal
Waikato 26 Wellington 10
Both sides were without their Black Ferns and after a tight first half in which penalty goals were exchanged, Wellington paid the price for two yellow cards, fortunately not overlapping. But with Waikato up 16-10, and 18 minutes left in the game it was still an open contest. However, moments after lock Jackie Patea-Fereti was sin-binned for repeated infringing when jumping across the line, Waikato were awarded a penalty try when in control only to have a rolling maul collapsed. Waikato, who hadn't played for a month, carried on to secure the win and a place in next week's final against Canterbury
Waikato 26 (Kelsey Teneti, Montessa Tairakena tries; penalty try; Kennedy Tahau pen; Tenika Willison 2 pen) Wellington 10 (Angelica Uila try; Elizabeth Goulden pen; Cheyne Copeland con). HT: 3-3
Championship semifinal:
Northland 26 Hawke's Bay 27
Hawke's Bay secured the finals berth, but had to do it the hard way in Whangarei. They were down 0-21 after 22 minutes, and 10-21 at halftime. Northland second five-eighths Victoria Subritzkey-Nafatali scored her second try three minutes into the second half to extend the lead to 26-10. But in an 18-minute burst from the 52nd minute mark, Hawke's Bay stormed home with three tries. They needed to because the last try to clinch the lead was the only successful Bay kick of the night and was landed by Krysten Cottrell.
Northland 26 (Hinewai Pomare, Tiaho Mahanga, Victoria Subritzky-Nafatali 2 tries; Subritzkey-Nafatali 2 con; Timara Leaf con) Hawke's Bay 27 (Rakai McCafferty, Krysten Cottrell, Moomooga Palu, Harmony Kautai, Kathleen Brown tries; Cottrell con). HT: 21-10
Manawatū 25 Canterbury 31
Manawatū 25 (Jayme Nuku, Crystal Mayes, Rachael Rakatau tries; Carys Dallinger 2 con, 2 pen) Canterbury 31 (Te Rauoriwa Gapper, Olivia McGoverne, Grace Steinmetz 2 tries; Isabella Waterman 2 con; McGoverne 2 con, pen). HT: 25-7