Former Canterbury age group rep Jordy Stone has made a big impact at halfback for Te Puna this season. Photo/File
Just how even the Baywide Premier 1 competition is this year was clearly evident at Tauranga Domain last Saturday.
Rotorua club Rotoiti travelled over to play Tauranga Sports, the first-round champions.
Easy win for Tauranga, right? Not this year.
Rotoiti trailed 8-5 at halftime but then went up a few gears to score 25 unopposed points to take a shock 30-8 victory.
Now the pressure ramps up on Tauranga in tomorrow's second match of the round.
They travel across town to Maramataga Park to face a desperate Te Puna side that has lost its winning way over recent weeks.
Tauranga coach Zane Winslade said the team was still sorting out what went wrong in that second half last week.
"The clear thing was just little mistakes which they capitalised on really well. I guess from the whole perspective it is about maintaining consistency throughout the 80 minutes," he said.
"If you give a good team like that the ball too many times you can't expect to win. The main thing was losing possession at key moments."
Winslade said the loss may be the best thing that could have happened at this stage of the round.
"Obviously it was a big shock after it happened but definitely a good thing. We are pretty hungry now to go out and make it right. That can only be good for our performance.
"In some ways it is much easier to turn up to training after you have lost, under no illusions about where you are."
Te Puna will be a major threat tomorrow but Winslade said his team was excited about the game.
"There is not going to be an easy game in this round. Te Puna were one of the top teams throughout that round. It is going to be a huge challenge and we will want to put in an 80-minute performance."
Te Puna coach Aidan Kuka was hoping to get some key players back from injury after last week's loss to Te Puke Sports.
"Te Puke is a quality side and have a huge forward pack. They really took us apart in the set-piece area," he said.
"We have had a few injuries in our forward pack so this week we have had to strip things back and problem solve around that set-piece area while we work through these injuries."
Kuka said Tauranga Sports were always a huge challenge.
"I guess they would be hurting after their loss but we're hurting too. We haven't won for four weeks so we are looking to turn that around this week definitely.
"Last time we played them we were really lethargic. If we are going to compete with Tauranga Sports we definitely have to match them for speed around park and ensure our set-piece is really good. We definitely need our A game on Saturday."
Baywide Premier 1 and Premier 1 Development Draw
Premier kick-off: 2.45pm, Development kick-off: 1pm
Te Puna v Tauranga Sports at Maramatanga Park
Te Puke Sports v Whakarewarewa at Murray Salt Stadium
Rotoiti v Mount Maunganui Sports at Emery Park
Rangataua v Greerton Marist at Te Ariki Park
Baywide Premier 2 and Premier 2 Development Draw:
Paroa v Marist St Michael's at Lawson Park
Arataki v Ngongotaha at Arataki Park
Poroporo v Waikite at Poroporo Park
Whakatane Marist v Opotiki at Rugby Park
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