Bay of Plenty Steamers' Baden Wardlaw offloads the ball during the round seven Mitre 10 Cup match against Manawatu at Rotorua International Stadium. Photo / Getty Images
Bay of Plenty Steamers' Baden Wardlaw offloads the ball during the round seven Mitre 10 Cup match against Manawatu at Rotorua International Stadium. Photo / Getty Images
Manawatu stopped a run of six consecutive losses in the Mitre 10 Cup with a tense 17-15 win over the Bay of Plenty Steamers at the Rotorua International Stadium on Thursday night.
The result consigned the Steamers to their 5th loss in succession and Manawatu overtake them on the tier 2 Championship table.
The match started disastrously for the home team.
After just one minute Manawatu halfback Jamie Booth broke on the blind side just inside the Bay of Plenty half. He brushed off some poor defence and scooted nearly 50 metres to score under the posts.
The Rotorua fans shuffled uncomfortably in their barely warm seats.
The Steamers seemed to recover quickly enough and settled into some good phase play, recycling the ball well. But while the Manawatu defence held well, Bay of Plenty contributed to their own problems by making mistakes at crucial times.
A dropped ball here, a penalty concession at the breakdown there and the advantage was lost.
The scrum was going well though and it was the strength at the set piece which brought about the Steamers' first points.
At the 24 minute mark, the Bay of Plenty pack drove Manawatu off the straight and won the penalty from just inside the 10m mark. Jason Robertson coolly slotted the goal and it was 7-3.
But soon after, disaster.
Robertson limped off just after the half hour mark, not to return. Later it is revealed he has a serious leg injury. A backline reshuffle saw fullback Kaleb Trask move to first five and replacement Chase Tiatia came on at fullback.
But he'd hardly settled in when dangerous Manawatu left wing Junior Laloifi powered down the touchline from just inside the halfway line on the embankment side, passed inside to fullback Sam Malcom who was in the clear. He outpaced the chasing tacklers to score wide out, but Otere Black landed a great kick and it was 14-3.
The Steamers copped their second serious injury of the night as loosehead prop Solomona Sakalia was assisted off at the 36-minute mark. He was later taken to hospital with a torn achilles.
Solomona Sakalia is helped off the field. Photo /Getty Images
Manawatu took their 11-point lead to the half-time break, a score reflected in the numbers. Manawatu had run 282m to the Steamers' 168 but Bay of Plenty had made 39 carries to 26.
The Turbos were within centimetres of stretching their lead 9 minutes into the second half. The always threatening Laloifi was in the act of scoring when the cover defence bundled him into the corner post a nanosecond before he grounded the ball. The TMO saved the Steamers.
But the resulting lineout produced one of the best Steamers moments of the match. From a clean take, the rolling maul thundered upfield 30 metres with Hoani Matenga conducting the play on the back. Releasing to Richard Judd, the halfback ran and fed Bailey Simonsson. However the move broke down two phases later with a dropped pass – the story of the Steamers night.
After Otere Black had landed a penalty, Manawatu entered the last quarter of the match with a 17-3 lead.
The home team weren't finished though. After a period of sustained pressure substitute lock Aaron Carroll was pushed over by his teammates close to the posts after 66 minutes. Trask held his head in embarrassment as what should have been a sitter of a conversion hit the posts. That made it 17-8.
Maintaining the territorial advantage, Bay of Plenty scored again with backline substitute Luke Campbell coming off the right wing to score from close range adjacent to the posts. Trask quickly dropkicked the conversion this time and it was 17-15 with 2 minutes to play.
But there were to be no last minute heroics.
Manawatu kicked off deep and their defence held firm. Trask had a chance to win the match with a 50 metre penalty at the death but it was short and wide and the Turbos held on to win - just their second match of the season.
