News

Steamers keep up the chase

August 16 2008

Bay of Plenty remained just tucked in behind Wellington and unbeaten in the Air New Zealand Cup on Saturday, with a 38-31 win over North Harbour in Mount Maunagnui.

Loose forwards Solomon King and Colin Bourke were the heroes of the day, with two tries each adding to another from New Zealand Sevens afficionado Zar Lawrence.

Fly-half Mike Delany landed six kicks out of six, while the Steamers' opponents North Harbour gained the consolation of two bonus points despite failing to register their first win.

The Steamers dominated the game, but a lack of finishing kept Harbour involved, with the visitors making the most of scraps of possession

With their forwards outplaying North Harbour, Bay of Plenty enjoyed a wealth of possession and dominated territorially.

But they failed to close out many of their moves sparked by halfback Jamie Nutbrown and Delany, instead receiving a lesson on how to survive on scraps by North Harbour.

All of North Harbour's tries had an opportunistic flavour, coming against the flow of play.

After King had registered his two tries to take his side 14-0 ahead, Harbour scrum-half Chris Smylie finished off a superb counter-attack sparked by wing Vili Waquaseduadua, to make the half-time score 14-7 to the hosts.

Lawrence and Bourke both scored within 12 minutes of the second-half restart - Lawrence's tinges with controversy as he appeared to knock the ball on - and the Steamers should have been pulling away.

Instead, they were tested. Harbour replacement wing Josh York scored a breakaway try, and then Richard Mayhew charged down a kick for another to make it 28-21.

Delany stretched the lead to ten with a penalty, but back came Harbour once again, with Waquaseduadua streaking away for a terrific solo effort to make it 31-28.

Lawrence steadied the ship again, by breaking down the middle and then finding Bourke on the offload, and Harbour were left clutching the second bonus point when Jimmy Gopperth landed a late penalty.

The scorers:

For Bay of Plenty:

Tries: King 2, Bourke 2, Lawrence

Cons: Delany 5

Pen: Delany

For North Harbour:

Tries: Smylie, York, Mayhew, Waquaseduadua

Cons: Gopperth 4

Pen: Gopperth

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 (c), 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 (c), 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