Gutsy Panthers push Lions all way in tough game

Portland Panthers will go back to the drawing board after suffering a 28-36 loss - their third straight - to a hungry Kaikohe Lions.
Before leaving Kaikohe on Saturday, the Lions were nervous about how many players they would field for the Whangarei City And Districts Rugby League Competition round nine clash.
They were missing four players, so coach Benson Selwyn shuffled some positions and had a competent team to work with for the match between last year's premiers and Portland, who started the season well.
"I knew this game was never going to be easy. I said to the players we did have turn up that this was their chance to earn their jerseys. We had guys out of their positions - I didn't have any props so I had a second rower and a winger playing prop. They were thrown together, but they held on, took a couple of lucky chances and produced a good team effort," Selwyn said.
It was an even match up in the first half, but it was Kaikohe centre Hamuera Tohu who kickstarted the scoring.
Fullback Ashton Gray and second row Ben Leaa'etala added to Kaikohe's first half try tally, which saw them ahead of Portland 16-4 for most of the first 40.
Portland fought back late towards halftime, with Sep Paraha and Lyn Hunapo adding to Robert Nathan's earlier try.
With a successful conversion from Charles Shelford, Portland went in 14-16 down at halftime.
A few minutes after the restart, Portland took advantage of an offside call against Kaikohe, and pressed towards the Lions line, sending Michael Salase through the defence and in for a try. The unconverted try gave Portland the lead.
After several attempts to reply to the host's try, Tohu found a gap in the Portland defence, and pinned his ears back to score his second try on his own.
Standoff Shontain Tau's third conversion of the day put the Lions back in front by a narrow four points. 18-22.
Tau then scored a try from 40m out himself before Portland's John Karena replied to close the gap again to 22-26.
Tau struck it lucky with a quick chip that landed kindly for him and he extended the lead, before Shelford struck back taking the score to 28-32.
Portland were down to 12 men in the closing minutes of the game, when Salase was sinbinned for a shoulder barge.
Kaikohe continued their relentless charge for their tryline, and managed to send Tane Ravlick across to secure the win.
Portland coach Craig Bird said it was a disappointing end to a game that could have gone either way.
"But I take my hat off to Kaikohe, they played well.
"Once a team like that gets their tails up, they are hard to stop," Bird said.
In other round nine matches, Takahiwai won 30-28 against Moerewa, City went down to Bay Slayers' 56-14 while Hikurangi ran over Otaua 72-10 and Wairoa beat Hokianga 64-12.