Horahora Broncos rebound with win over Otangarei after Takahiwai loss

Daley Johnson's (right) leadership wasn't enough to mount a comeback against the Horahora Broncos on Friday night. Photo / File

The Horahora Broncos have bounced back after a tough 26-4 loss to Takahiwai last weekend to beat the Otangarei Knights, 28-22, on Friday night in Hikurangi.

In what was the final weekend of the president's round of Northland's premier rugby league competition, the Specialty Glass-sponsored Broncos battled a late Knights fight-back in the second half to finish second on the table, behind Takahiwai.

Despite having a bye last weekend, Takahiwai's form earlier in the competition saw them on top of the table and winners of the first phase of the competition. The next two rounds will see the top four decided before the semi-finals and finals are held.

With just one win and two losses, the Broncos needed a strong performance to make a respectable finish in the president's round. An early blitz against a slow-starting Otangarei outfit saw Horahora up 16-nil at halftime.

"Our forwards did pretty well, they made heaps of metres which allowed out halves to work the ball out through the backline," Horahora Broncos club chairman Sean Tito said.

"In the past few years, [Otangarei] have been in the grand final so they are no slouches, but I think they might have been surprised with how well we started."

Tito hoped his side could improve their structure and continue developing game awareness and fitness to ensure similar results in future fixtures.

Knights coach Des Nordstrand said his side were caught off-guard with how quickly the Broncos got into the game.

"[The Broncos] got the jump on us, we just had a really bad start," he said.

"We were just asleep for the most of the first half with lots of dropped ball, lots of penalties and a guy in the sin-bin in the first five minutes."

Despite the slow start, Nordstrand said he was proud of his players who came back strong in the second half to almost steal the victory.

"We came back and had things gone right, we could have possibly won it but credit to [Horahora] they were the better team on the night and they are going great guns this year which is good to see."

The other game of the round saw the Portland Panthers beat the Northern Wairoa Bulls, 38-24 in Dargaville.