Undefeated BoP Steaming ahead
Sat, 16 Aug 2008 08:28
The Bay of Plenty Steamers stayed in touch with tournament leaders the Wellington Lions when they beat North Harbour 38-31 in their Air New Zealand Cup Round Three match at Bay Park Stadium, Mt Maunganui, on Saturday.
The result meant the Steamers remained second in the standings on 14 points, one behind leaders Wellington, and along with the Lions are the only unbeaten teams in the competition.
Effervescent loose forwards Solomon King and Colin Bourke grabbed two tries each as the Steamers continued their impressive early season form.
Add to that the outstanding form of first five-eighth (No.10) Mike Delany - who kicked a penalty and five conversions - and you have the recipe for the BoP team's success.
The downside of the result is that North Harbour remain winless and rooted at the bottom of the Air NZ Cup table. At least they picked up two bonus points - scoring four tries and finishing within seven points of the Steamers.
Lead by their loose forwards, Bay of Plenty outplayed North Harbour up front and secured a wealth of possession - allowing them to dominate territorially.
Despite recording another impressive win, the Steamers will also know that there is plenty of room for improvement, as they failed to close out many of their moves.
The creative geniuses in the backline were scrumhalf Jamie Nutbrown and Delany.
North Harbour showed their hosts how to survive on scraps.
Sceptics may say that all of North Harbour's tries were opportunistic efforts, coming against the flow of play, but it is a good sign that a team can stay in touch with its rivals under such trying circumstances.
One prime example is when scrumhalf Chris Smylie finished off a counter attack by wing Viliame Waqaseduadua in the first half.
North Harbour trailed only 7-14 at half-time, but Bay of Plenty doubled their score when Sevens specialist Zar Lawrence scored a controversial try after it appeared that he had knocked on the ball before dotting it down. This score followed Bourke's first try, and 12 minutes into the second half the Steamers had a 28-7 advantage.
North Harbour's substitute wing Josh York then scored a runaway try after first five-eighth and skipper Jimmy Gopperth initiated a turnover.
This was quickly followed by Richard Mayhew, who scored his try after charging down a five-metre clearance by Nutbrown.
Delany stretched Bay of Plenty's lead out to 10 points with a penalty, but North Harbour responded with the try of the match by Waqaseduadua.
The fleet-footed wing beat four tacklers on a jinking run in the 73rd minute to close the gap to three points.
But Bay of Plenty held their nerve.
Lawrence showed a clean pair of heels on a counter-attack down the middle and he offloaded for Bourke to score his second try of the match.
Scorers:
For Bay
of Plenty:
Tries: King 2, Bourke 2, Lawrence
Cons: Delany 5
Pen: Delany
For North Harbour:
Tries: Smylie, York, Mayhew, Waqaseduadua
Cons: Gopperth 4
Pen: Gopperth
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 Dean Elmiger, 1 Joe Savage.
Replacements: 16 Ray Brown, 17 Arden David-Perrot, 18 Aidan Kuka, 19 Luke Braid, 20 Kelly Haimona, 21 Paula Asaeli, 22 Teu Nafe.
North Harbour: 15 Hayden Abercrombie, 14 Viliame Waqaseduadua, 13 Nafi Tuitavake, 12 Mike Harris, 11 Josh York, 10 Jimmy Gopperth (captain), 9 Chris Smylie, 8 Viliame Maafu, 7 Robbie Colhoun, 6
Tom Chamberlain, 5 Martin Purdy, 4 Chris Smith, 3 Michael Reid , 2 James Hinchco, 1 James Afoa.
Replacements: 16 James Parsons, 17 Sam Biddles, 18 Richard Mayhew, 19 Malakai Ravulo, 20 Matt France, 21 Jon Elrick, 22 Jerome Smith.
Referee: Keith Brown
TMO: Ben Skeen
