Nutbrown gets Steaming swansong
Fri, 05 Sep 2008 13:20
Bay of Plenty's (BOP) Jamie Nutbrown received a stylish send-off on Friday, after his side's 31-20 Air New Zealand (NZ) Cup victory over Otago in Mt Maunganui.
Friday's victory helped the Steamers move up into second position behind Wellington on the Air NZ Cup tournament table.
The hosts held on tightly after leading 24-0 at half-time, just days after suffering their first loss of the season to a rampant Wellington Lions outfit.
The Steamers were clearly feeling hurt by that, as they teared into a lacklustre Otago outfit in the first half after being aided by a breeze at their backs.
Otago's substandard performance in the first spell could not be put down to conditions however, with raft of handling errors giving Bay of Plenty heaps of possession.
But Otago reinvented themselves during the interval, as tries to Tom Donnelly and captain Craig Newby, plus a fine boot from Chris Noakes, saw them close the gap to 20-24 with just 17 minutes remaining.
Delany then crossed for the Steamers' bonus-point fourth try and added the sideline conversion for good measure, to give Bay of Plenty some breathing space.
Playing his final match in New Zealand before joining Welsh club Ospreys, Nutbrown worked exceptionally hard behind an enthusiastic forward pack.
He scored the best try of the game just minutes before half-time, after first flyhalf Mike Delany made the initial incision inside his own half before offloading to No.8 Colin Bourke.
Bourke calmly drew the last defender and passed to Nutbrown, giving Delany a dead easy conversion right in front of the goal posts.
Nutbrown's effort complemented earlier tries to flank Tanerau Latimer and lock Culum Retallick, before Otago burst to life after the resumption as they scored two converted tries within eight minutes of the restart.
Otago's resurgence continued when flyhalf Noakes slammed over a 55 metre penalty in the 56th minute and another from closer range seven minutes later.
With the Steamers just 24-20 ahead, the outcome hung in the balance until Delany squeezed through a gap and then slid across the try-line after patient preparatory work by his forwards.
Scorers:
For Bay of Plenty:
Tries: Latimer, Retallick, Nutbrown, Delany
Cons: Delany 4
Pen: Delany
For Otago:
Tries: Donnelly, Newby
Cons: Noakes 2
Pen: Noakes 2
Teams:
Bay of Plenty: 15 Zar Lawrence, 14 Lance MacDonald, 13 Cory Aporo, 12 Nigel Hunt, 11 Jason Hona, 10 Mike Delany, 9 Jamie Nutbrown, 8 Colin Bourke, 7 Tanerau Latimer (captain), 6 Solomon King, 5 Culum Retallick, 4 John Moore, 3 James McGougan, 2 John Pareanga, 1 Joe Savage.
Replacements: 16
Dean Elmiger, 17 Matt Wallis, 18 Aidan Kuka, 19 Luke Braid, 20 Kelly Haimona, 21 Paula Asaeli, 22 Toby Arnold.
Otago: 15 Glen Horton, 14 Lucky Mulipola, 13 Aaron Bancroft, 12 Daniel Bowden, 11 Ben Smith, 10 Chris Noakes, 9 Toby Morland, 8 Steven Setephano, 7 Craig Newby (captain), 6 Seko Qaraniqio, 5 Tom Donnelly, 4 Ross Kennedy, 3 Ben Nolan, 2 Peter Mirrielees, 1 Keith Cameron.
Replacements: 16 Jason MacDonald, 17 Jed Vercoe, 18 Paul Grant, 19 Eben Joubert, 20 Sean Romans, 21 Dan Snee, 22 Karne Hesketh.
Referee: Vinny Munro
TMO: Ben Skeen
