Replacement back Naomi Sopoaga beat a couple of thousand defenders at least and dotted down late.
Georgia Cormick posted 20 points in another classy performance from the base of the scrum.
And Otago ran in six first-half tries in a comfortable 60-17 win over Taranaki in the Farah Palmer Cup championship in New Plymouth on Saturday.
Spirit centre Cheyenne Cunningham left the field early for a cut near her eye.
Her replacement, Sopoaga, set up the first try.
She ran through a hole, stepped a defender and almost skipped out of the last line of defence but got the offload to Cormick, who scored.
The talented halfback was in again moments later.
She scooped the ball up from a ruck 5m out, stepped off her right foot and strolled over.
Most of the time Taranaki got the ball in Otago’s half, they came up with a mistake and the Spirit were able to run their way out of trouble.
But midway through the opening half they were able to build some pressure and scored out wide through the fullback Eve Martin.
Otago shook off the disappointment with a wonderful counter-attack.
Sopoaga made the break, of course, and got the overhead pass to Sheree Hume, and the experienced first five had the pace and strength to score from more than 40m out.
Sopoaga featured strongly in the lead up to Lithgow’s first try as well.
The Spirit added a fifth five-pointer moments later. Lithgow grabbed her second when she drove over from a 5m lineout.
Fill-in No 8 Tegan Hollows, who usually slots in at hooker, burst on to the ball and ran in from 20m out just before the break, as Otago led 40-5.
Sopoaga started the second half where she left off the
first.
She made a scything run and got Otago right back into the red zone.
Lithgow flopped over from another drive close to the line to complete her hat-trick.
Both teams lost players to the bin for cynical fouls in the second half.
Taranaki copped two yellow cards but managed to crashed over for a couple of tries in the second half.
In a round with some lopsided scorelines, Manawatu smashed Tasman 55-17, Waikato thumped Auckland 65-17, Bay of Plenty beat Hawke’s Bay 47-26, Wellington downed North Harbour 36-21, and Counties-Manukau defeated Northland 35-26.
Farah Palmer Cup
The scores
Otago Spirit 60
Hannah Lithgow 3, Georgia Cormick 2, Sheree Hume, Tegan Hollows, Jamie Church, Naomi Sopoaga, Kayley Johnson tries; Cormick 5 con.
Taranaki Whio 17
Hayley Gabriel 2, Eve Martin tries; Laura Claridge con.
Halftime: Otago 40-5.
