Otumoetai Eels are already looking forward to the kickoff of the inter-district competition in June after thrashing what was supposed to be their toughest rivals in the Bay of Plenty district rugby league club premiership on Saturday.
In their first home game at Mitchelle Park since last season, the Bay Sprint Couriers Eels laid on an impressive eight tries in their 40-12 romp over Tokoroa's Pacific Sharks, with the Sharks' two tries coming in the dying seconds of the one-sided gallop. Tauranga Whalers got their first points of the season when Ngongotaha, once Rotorua's leading club, defaulted its premier and reserve games.
The Eels might be full of fresh faces, with less than half of last year's premier team back and the rest purportedly living and working in Western Australia, but they've lost none of the run-and-gun style that last year carried them into the semifinals of the Waikato, Coastline and Bay of Plenty zone premiership.
Eels skipper Mikaere October was full of praise for the undermanned Sharks, who had several of their best players away working, but it's clear after just two weeks of the Bay of Plenty district competition that the WaiCoa Bays competition can't come quickly enough for the Tauranga side, who now have the luxury of stretching their legs and bedding in defensive systems before taking on Waikato's best.
"The goal is WaiCoa Bays; those are the game we're building for and that's what we play the game for," said the hard-working Eels hooker, who slithered over for a deserved first-half try.