The Hawke's Bay Development rugby team won the second half but the damage had been done in the first when they took on the Whanganui Heartland team on Saturday.
Whanganui won the Park Island encounter 33-14 after leading 26-0 at halftime. Manager of the Bay team Mike Smith said halfback Jayden Rihia was a late withdrawal as he has been promoted to the Magpies Mitre 10 Cup squad as injury cover and this meant Taradale halfback Karl Hewitt had to play the full game.
"We had lots of new guys and only two trainings and Whanganui had just come off a camp too," he added.
The host side had some good patches in the second half. Captain and openside flanker Ben Hamelink and Magpies loosehead prop Jarvy Aoake led the host pack by example and Tamati Samuels had memorable shifts in the first five-eighth and fullback positions.
The Bay's under-19 team lost 62-12 to the Whanganui Development team in the curtainraiser. Bay coach Blair Cross said his troops were on the back foot after losing first five-eighth Jack Harley in the first play of the game with a broken leg which is likely to sideline him until the end of 2018.