Rugby: Mount nail Queen's Birthday honours

Mount Maunganui have capped a near-perfect Queen's Birthday weekend with an assured 23-13 defeat of Rotoiti at Blake Park.

The Mount, who blew the doors off Tauranga Sports 37-3 on Saturday, never quite reached the same heights against an opposition more than willing to play to their strength up front.

Last year's beaten finalists never looked like being caught after dominating large parts of the first half, but were made to work hard for their three tries against a physical onslaught led by Bay of Plenty legend Wayne Ormond and impressive hooker Joe Royal.

The sides traded penalties before Johan Bardoul enhanced his growing reputation with an abrasive, mobile performance against what was a fine Rotoiti pack.

He scored the only try of a stunted first 40; bouncing and twisting out of ineffectual tackles after earlier breaking through the middle courtesy of a nicely delayed pass just wide of the ruck.

The home side wasted little time kicking ahead after the break.

Halfback Matt Golding sniped around the corner of a ruck and then kicked the sideline conversion to make it 15-3, before stepping up to slot a sweetly struck penalty from more than 40 metres out.

A sustained period of Rotoiti pressure, typified by numerous forward thrusts around the fringes, culminated in a short-range unconverted effort to Jacob Marsters, making it 18-8 after 54 minutes.

The arm wrestle continued, with Mount midfielder Teddy Stanaway especially not shying away from the physical stuff.

Down 10 points with as many minutes to go, Rotoiti turned down repeated kickable penalties inside the Mount's 22, instead opting for lineout drives.

When Joe Royal finally barged over in the right-hand corner just three minutes remained, leaving the visitors to travel the length of the field in search of a try following Ripia's wayward attempted conversion.

Miscommunication following a quick tap decided the match, allowing Bardoul to again storm upfield before backing up his effort to crash over in the corner.

Elsewhere, the big guns mostly fired on the back end of a big Queen's Birthday weekend of Bayfair Baywide premier club rugby competition.

Tauranga Sports bounced back with a 35-20 win over Te Puna, while Te Puke outlasted Rangataua 22-17.

Rangiuru won their first match of the season 25-24 over Greerton Marist, with Whakarewarewa cashing in their five competition points due to their pre-season 48-0 thumping of Opotiki.

Mount Maunganui, Te Puke, Greerton Marist and Tauranga Sports claimed the points in the Development competition.

Mount Maunganui 23 (Johan Bardoul 2, Matt Golding; Golding 2 pens, con) Rotoiti 13 (Joe Royal, Jacob Marsters tries; Tyson Ripia pen).